12 Hours
by DaWiz
Summary: Voldemort's dead, but the Death Eaters have not disappeared they have just gone underground. What's more? Astoria's been kidnapped and Death Eaters are behind it. Daphne has got 12 hours to uncover the plot and rescue her sister with someone's help.
1. Chapter 1 prologue

**TITLE: 12 HOURS**

**Pairings: Harry and Daphne**

**DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter series belong to J.K Rowling.**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

Summary: Its been 5 years since the last major war in the wizarding world. 5 years since a Dark Lord commanded his reign over the magical community of Britain. 5 years of peace and tranquility. But this rule didn't apply to all. Daphne works in DMLE but more under jurisdiction section. Some of original followers of Voldemort have decided to strike back with vengeance and take back what's theirs by their rules.

PROLOGUE

The sun had just come up. It was 8 in the morning of Spring Season of March. A breeze of cool air blew through the open windows of a three stories bungalow. The owner of the house was snoozing off the blissful five minutes after the usual time to wake for the day. The wind caused the owner to simply pull the satin quilts closer to warm the body from the breeze. But to no avail as the wind kept blowing and becoming cooler. The owner or mistress of the house was struggling hard to squeeze every ounce of sleep she could in the five minutes. Finally accepting her defeat, she threw the covers off her face.

Everything was just as it used to be in the morning. The room was lit by the morning sun's golden rays falling on the marble flooring of the room and reflecting everywhere. The window was as usual open and curtains were flaring and flapping due to the ever growing wind. She was still half in sleep, as she grudgingly slipped over her bed covers to edge. She slowly wore her favorite bunny slippers and dragged herself towards the windows. She held out her hand to close the windows when someone spoke in a casual way, "Leave it, it's better open. Besides you should anyway wake up, it's time to do some job."

Her hands went stiff and were clamping the window handle tight as her knuckles turned white. She knew that voice very well, having to endure it for 7 years of her teenaged life. She knew all too well if he was here then by no means at least today she would have a normal day. She spoke in blank tone, "No one ever said you were welcome here."

"Well, Good morning to you too Miss Greengrass." He said in sarcastic respect.

"Malfoy, how come you invade my privacy today?" she turned and glared at the blond ponce who was sitting on a recliner in front of her four posters and calmly enjoying one of her apples.

"I see why he left that Red Haired Freckles in your favor so easily." He said while his eyes drifted all over the skin that was visible and specially curves. She was wearing her simple night dress which comprised of her under garments with a thin silk sleeveless T-shirt which hardly reached her mid thighs and did a great job at accentuating her chest size as much her bra allowed.

"Is it a compliment or an epitome of your lust?" she smirked, "Enjoy a forbidden fruit, is that all you came for?"

"Please don't blame me for some silly teenaged hormones of five years ago. I got a lot many Veelas to satisfy my needs. I'm above such meager needs of a common man now, but I can bow a little if you are so desperate." He smiled through his next bite.

Daphne inched constantly to the pillows of her bed in hopes of getting near to her wand hidden there.

"You really shouldn't bother about your wand and rather wear something warm, not that complaining my view but I can't afford you to fall ill today." He said while taking out a willow wood 9 inches and dragon heart string wand and placing it on the small table in front him besides the fruit basket.

She knew she was now at receiving end of whatever he threw at her next and she had to follow him whether she willed or not. She cursed herself for slacking her defenses and losing her wand so easily, 'Damn it, after all exclusive lessons that dunderhead of all people gave me on staying alert I still lost it in my sleep, and not to mention this guy of all people breached my security wards so easily all the way to my room. I have really become blunt over the years.' She went to the smaller wardrobe and took out a crimson coloured night gown and donned it. She patiently waited for him to finish whatever he was here for as fast as he could. She also checked her occlumency shields for any breaches and was satisfied with the results.

"Ah… lets get straight to point." He took the wand from the table and vanished what was left of the apple and placed the wand back. "As you know the war has dealt a big blow to magical community especially to the pureblood society. As of now many of the pureblood families have either gone extinct or are on verge of it. Including ours Greengrass, we are fairly outnumbered by half-bloods, filthy blood traitors and mudbloods." He spat last part in disgust. "We purebloods.."

Daphne cut in, "You mean, you and your little group of 'Death Eaters' by 'we purebloods', right Draco?" she air quoted twice.

Draco Malfoy was never famous for patience, nor was he cut out for that, but today things were in his hands, so a little tolerance wouldn't harm him. He continued as if uninterrupted, "We purebloods" he glared at a smirking Daphne, "have decided take certain things in our hands. Some of the purebloods who were baselessly arrested in that battle are to be bailed out. And most importantly some of the major families were made to forfeit their entire heirlooms and ancestral artifacts and other riches and funds to the ministry on the accounts of the repair funds to be used in battle aftermath. This is an obnoxious act, treason to us purebloods who are the rightful heirs through family connections. And most definitely we can't afford to lose some of the major strong pureblood by letting them rot in a prison cell. Our magical community thrives on their magic and elegance. We do need some of their guidance for future…"

"Whoa hold on there. Exactly whose guidance are you seeking for, deranged killing machines or psychotic criminals." She sneered at him.

"Interrupting your betters Greengrass, haven't your parents taught you etiquettes of our society. Oh I forgot you don't' have any to refer to." He jeered at her.

This time he was successful to get past her aloofness as she was infuriated at his mockery of her parents. No one had ever crossed her with any such statement since her sixth year after she made it clear what were they risking for even thinking like this. She controlled her anger as she couldn't do anything to him with her wand not in her hand. She smirked again, "You never change Malfoy, still chanting your father's name to get your bidding done. And you of all people is talking about betters!"

"Smile as much as you want Greengrass, we will see how long you can smile." He smirked.

"Get to point Malfoy. Why you came here? And do mention how you came here so that I avoid such minor accidents next time." Her aloof cold eyes bore straight into his.

"Oh, well I got a job for you." He paused.

"And…" she raised an elegant eyebrow.

"You work as a solicitor and advisor in the International Magical Office of Law and the jurisdiction section of DMLE. So you are perfect for our cause. We want you to obtain some classified files and information on some prisoners of Azkaban. And then we would want you fight some of our cases in front of wizangamot. We rely on you and your efforts to regain some of our rights back. Also I want ledgers of some Most Ancient and Noble families which are no longer alive or have been forfeited to the ministry by nefarious means. I hope you know that ministry always keeps a backup references for all Noble families. And don't worry you will be paid satisfactorily for your work." He stated in a business tone.

"Draco… Draco… Draco, did you honestly thought I would even think about gifting you a knut for your birthday let alone do your dirty jobs." She sighed heavily as if talking to a 5 year old, "Well let me tell you clearly this final time I . DON'T . EVER . WANT . TO . DEAL . WITH . YOU . EVEN . FOR . MILLIONS . OF . GALLEONS . Do you understand?" she punctuated every word, "I think its time for you to leave, as I've some important business to handle today." She gestured to the doors.

"I thought you would say something like this. Any way I presume this belongs to your family." He took out a bracelet and placed it on the table.

Daphne's eyes went wide as she knew whose bracelet was it. The bracelet was made of gold. It was shaped like a snake that was swallowing its tail. The eyes of the snake were made of diamonds, which were charmed to tell the mood of its owner. And also tell whether they were alive or dead or in mortal peril. There was a small carving on head of the snake, a rose which is in full bloom and a dagger emerging from within the bloom. It was the Greengrass family crest. On body of snake, Daphne could clearly read the name of owner the bracelet 'Astoria Greengrass'. Since it was magically carved on it so only a Greengrass by blood could read the name carved on it and change of colour in the diamonds, so it was no doubt the bracelet was original. The diamonds were light grey which means she was in mortal peril and most probably semiconscious. She was enraged and was cursing herself to even let this happen. A spasm of fear flitted across her face then settled on contortion, she definitely didn't like where this was heading, "Where is she?" she whispered menacingly just above the wind.

"Good to see we are back on same boat." He smiled his charming smile which did nothing but infuriate her further. "Now let's deal. You do our job and we release your dear sister and I hope nothing more is needed to be said."

Daphne simply glared at him but didn't interrupt.

"Good, here is the list of files and ledgers of some Ancient and Noble families that we require. List of those inmates of Azkaban on which we require the classified information. And the list of some other classified files that you will get for us." He placed 3 folders on the table.

"Oh and please don't try to do something you will regret, which includes contacting any Auror. Here, this a two way mirror. Contact me and I will tell where to meet me after you get the files and documents for further tasks. You have got '12 Hours' to get these files to us. Right now it is 8:10 A.M. I expect you by 8:10 P.M. Good Luck. Remember 12 hours." He got up, nodded his head once, brought out a Galleon and vanished leaving the wand, the bracelet and 3 folders behind.

The moment he had vanished Daphne lost her composure and sat on the bed heavily. Just within a span of mere 10 minutes her life had gone from usual calm and composite to flushed down the gutter. It was not even morning properly and she already got an insane task served to her in a golden plate. She blankly stared where Draco had just vanished. Her blank expressions changed to rage and disgust, her wide eyes were now blood shot from anger. "That bastard how dare he threaten me and my family, my little sister just like that. How dare he think I will simply follow what he says? Ughh… how could I simply let her get kidnapped." She had always dreaded how she will take care of her sister after her parents died, she had promise her mother that she will save her sister from harm at her life's cost. So accepting this task was not an option but her only way to save her sister. She eyed the cursed envelops. She hesitantly got up and crossed the room and slowly extended her hand uncertain about what would she find. She stopped, steeled her mind and picked the 3rd one and glanced at the list. Her eyes went wide and she paled considerably, 'Scratch insane task, this is bloody suicide. These files are in Minister's office.' Her legs went numb and jelly like, the list slipped to the ground. Only one thought ran through her mind, 'remember 12 hours'. She looked at wall clock and saw that she had already lost 5 minutes.

The long forgotten windows remained open.

**A/N: The chapter ends.**

**A/N: I will try my best to make this a weekly update. This story will have 12 chapters, each for every hour.**

**A/N: I will post chapter 7 of my story 'THE BOND' by tomorrow.**

**SO PLEASE READ, ENJOY AND ****REVIEW. ****THANKS. **


	2. Chapter 2 1st hour

**Chapter 2: 1****st**** Hour**

**A/N: Thanks sanbeegoldiewhitey, ILikeComps, ceo55, Dinomus for your reviews and I look forward to hear more from you.**

**Dinomus: Harry will be involved both in past and present in an OOC way.**

**ceo55: Astoria has no relationship with Draco.**

**Sanbeegoldiewhitey: Astoria lives with Daphne.**

**A/N: This is a short update as not much action was supposed to happen in first hour.**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

'_thoughts'_

"_dialogues"_

Summary: Its been 5 years since the last major war in the wizarding world. 5 years since a Dark Lord commanded his reign over the magical community of Britain. 5 years of peace and tranquility. But this rule didn't apply to all. Harry is now an auror. Daphne works in DMLE but more under jurisdiction section. Some of original followers of Voldemort have decided to strike back with vengeance and take back what's theirs by their rules.

Chapter: 1st hour

8:30 A.M

A cold stream of water was dousing her already numb skin. She was standing in the shower for past 10 minutes; her psyche had refused to even consider its presence. Her mind was on auto chronic review mode. Every time those accursed words spoken nigh 20 min ago ran through her head she would feel emptier. A sudden pain revved through her chest as her body protested against the water. She quickly tapped a slender finger on the warm granite knob and instantly a Luke warm spray replaced the cold stream with a small amount of steam emerging from the floors of the queen sized tub just as she had preferred during this time of the year. This paltry little fact hit a not so paltry little blow in her head.

'Where is Tinge? She is the one who prepares the steam to exact temperature every morning.'

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, as she realized that she had completely forgotten about her house elves. She hurriedly came out of her bathroom and ran into the passageway of the master bedroom, all the while drenching the floors wet not even bothering to think about a bathrobe. She ran up to the stairwell descending down to the antechamber of the house. She looked frantically about the place for any sign of some bobbling diminutive creatures making their way through the house. She softly mumbled, "Tinge… Tinge" her voice started rising, " Tinge… answer me. Tinge answer your mistress dammit." Still not even a whisper ensued to her demands. "Rolt, Beecks, Doggles, DAMMIT WHERE ARE YOU BLOODY ELVES." Her shriek rang unimpeded through the empty halls and corridors of the manor. Her visage palling as the sands run through the hour glass.

She quickly sprinted towards the kitchen her wet damp jet black hair running wild on her face. She abruptly halted at the sight in front of her. The once gleaming black marble floors of the kitchen, the pride of Rolt's workplace was now shade darker than acidic green. Everywhere her eyes moved the floor was looking as if freshly painted, just the paint was blood of the house elves working there. She sank to her knees, taking support of a wooden table where the prepared food was kept ready to serve. Her already pale visage went a shade or two greyer. Her eyes devoid of any expressions other than plain horror. There right in front her about 4 feet, were lying the best cook she ever met and best house keeper she came to know, both Rolt and Doggles were holding each other's ripped neck in their mangled wiry fingers as if they had a skirmish just now. Both of their eyes had glazed look about them. She looked away and closed her eyes trying to keep her mind clear of these living nightmares. These things brought back her chronic nightmares of living through the night of her parents' slaughter. The subsequent war hadn't helped her on recovering through it. She had spent almost a year away from this manor, at Tracey's, in fear of reliving the entire manslaughter every second she breathed in this Manor. However the war had hardened her to face such things.

She slowly stood up; her calves were coated with elf blood. She was now sweating profusely even though the temperature inside was near 20 degrees. She was about leave when she heard a shuddered deep intake of breath. She whirled around and was met with sight of small but quick rise and fall of Tinge's chest. Tinge was the head elf of her house and her personal caretaker as well; she was also the oldest house elf.

Daphne scurried over to the house elf. "Tinge… wake up. Answer me Tinge. Wake up please don't die on me. I need your help immediately." She whimpered for the elf to come back to her. She had picked up her wand on her way down. She quickly tried Enervate spell to bring back the life of elf. Harry had taught her some basic First Aid spells for healing and closing wounds, on the fly should anything happen to her or Astoria. After about fourth enervate, Tinge's eyes fluttered open but her breathing became more labored. Daphne tried all the first aide spells in her arsenal and was successful in bringing the situation under control. Luckily Tinge wasn't hurt overly in physical manner, just some internal injuries which Tinge could manage or get a friendly elf to heal her.

"Tinge how did this happen? And where is Tori?"

Tinge took in a shuddered breath and gasped through breaths, "Little mistress…Astoria…Mafoy scion…kidnap…Mistress…Daphne…Blackmail…Bad job…Bung…traitor to…Greengrass…followed…Malfoy…imperius…Rolt Doggles…Burnt…Beeks…alive…to help…Little Miss." There was a small knife lying harmless beside her. "Bung…use…cursed knife…to burn alive." Tinge managed to convey.

Daphne wasn't shocked by the news of Bung being the traitor to the Greengrass family. It was one day during her fifth year at Hogwarts that her parents had found him smuggling a Greengrass hereditary book of dark arts to none other than Malfoys. Her father Sebastian Greengrass had immediately banished him from the family. Since that day Bung had held a grudge against the Greengrass and had joined Draco in serving the Moldyshorts. She resolved to kill that bloody house elf with the very same knife within these 12 hours. She rested Tinge's head on the floor, "Tinge listen I will call Tracey's elf to look after you. I have to go and rescue my sister now." She regretted to leave her like this. Daphne quickly got up and rushed up back to her room. She got a bathrobe and wrapped it around her. She called for Trinkle, Tracey's personal elf whom she could trust as much as Tinge. She quickly informed her to take Tinge with her and heal her. She also instructed her acutely to not even breath about this situation to anybody without her permission. She requested Trinkle to treat Tinge in secret. After Trinkle left she disposed the robes and went back to the bathroom to clean her-self.

This entire ordeal had taken a heavy toll on her already ticking hour. As it was already 8:50 A.M by the time she came out. She quickly changed in a pair of slacks, a knee length pleated peach colour skirt, a lavender button-up half sleeve shirt with some inners inside. She walked back down to the kitchens all the while thinking of what to do next. The floors were still smeared and the place had started to smell. She quickly put a stasis charm on the remaining house elves to protect their bodies for a proper burial as was the Greengrass protocol. She evanesced the gore from the floors and various other spots. She rubbed her moist and bleary eyes to clear some of the strong emotions still filling her head. It was time to think clearly and formulate a plan to get out of this mess as harmlessly as possible. She first needed to measure the depths that she was told to dive into, to check how long she could hold her own.

8:55 A.M

Her black coffee was steaming between her hands. And in front of her, besides the slightly nibbled toast, were the three envelops, the doomed envelops. She steadily glared at them. Berating her sanity, she picked up the first envelope, and slowly slid an ivory white neatly folded parchment out. She unfolded it and frowned in frustration as she read the bold cursive list:

**List of all the houses whose ledgers are required, and then needed to be merged with The Noble Houses whose list we will provide after completion of this task: **

**. The Most Noble house of Lestrange**

**. The Most Noble house of Nott**

**. The Most Ancient and Noble house of Gaunt**

**. The Most Ancient and Noble house of Avery**

**. The Noble house of Miltons**

There were a few more in the list which were not so important for her to look over right now. The last few however caught her eye.

**. The Most Ancient and Noble house of Sinclair**

**. The Most Ancient and Noble house of ****Peverells**

**. The Most Ancient and Noble house of Black**

She snorted at childish wish of Malfoy wanting to merge the Black and Sinclair house with Malfoys. Even if law would allow such an illogical thing Harry wouldn't let it pass before an honor duel. And Malfoy definitely didn't stand a chance in such duels. He would most definitely try to drag her in the head butting they called duel, so she decided that once obtaining the easier ones she would try to negotiate with Draco to reach an understanding and avoid such worthless debacles.

She didn't know anything about the Peveralls and Gaunt lines of families as she never came across such names even in her own family tree line down in the Greengrass library. However she didn't have idle time to recall such names from long forgotten past.

She looked and reviewed the entire list a number of times thoroughly, and deciphered that this envelope would prove a little difficult but was at least possible to complete a fair percentage of it given her status and power of her position. She folded the parchment and placed it back in the envelope.

Next she picked up the mirror remembering vividly the last time she came across such telecommunication device. Unlike the previous one this was a plain and perfectly square of 3 inches side. She waved her wand above it in a dexterous manner and just as expected the little despicable thing had a standard tracking charm which she could remove easily and another one, more intricately woven with magic running in the object. The more disturbing fact was that the rune array was done in blood and she had a hunch as whose blood was used, this did get on her nerves even more. But she had to control herself as the ropes of this play were in that dimwit's hands. If she even tried an unsuccessful attempt at removing the charm, the entire magic in it will be disturbed and the mirror will remain just a plain reflective mirror. Not only that the reversal of magic on the mirror would cause the strength provider of the magic, which is the blood the donor, to lose their entire magic or worst their life. So she had to leave it as it is. But what astonished her more was the fact that since the rune array was beyond Malfoy's mental capability so who did he have on his side or was he simply a spokesperson for the mastermind?

She looked at clock. It was 5 past nine A.M and almost end of her first hour. She needed to be at her desk by 9:15. She summoned her traveling cloak and purse. She then put her sister's bracelet and the other vile objects (envelops and two way mirror) in separate partings of her purse. She just wished that security would take her for granted. She took out her Greengrass crest badge and port-keyed to the antechamber of The Ministry of Magic.

Chapter Ends…

**A/N: This was a small update but next will be longer and elaborate.**

**Read and REVIEW. And I hope that this time I get some more than just 4 reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3 2nd hour

**Chapter 2: Second Hour**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

**I am sorry all those who read my story. My college just started and it's been a busy schedule. Plus I don't have anything already written on this story, so it takes a bit time to sometimes rewrite whole paras.**

**Thank you all those who have added my story to their Favourites and Alerts and obviously those who reviewed.**

**hpnut1: thanks**

**Lord Lelouch: You are right with most part. And relationships of lead characters will be discussed in next chapter. As Harry I am sure you will love his character in my story.**

**tdog3872: Harry will enter in next chapter. Keep reading for more details.**

**Hoffindor: I will keep this story more in action and adventure frame than fluff.**

**ceo55: I am more like building the story on the way. So I can't tell much of testimony part. As for Harry's elves helping Astoria- no I am planning something different.**

'_thoughts'_

"_dialogues"_

Chapter: Second Hour

9:05 A.M

The colossal foyer of Ministry of Magic was buzzing its usual hum of the thousands of chattering and scattering of the people working there. Among the hundreds of popping and zoning-in was one such appearance of an elegant attractive raven black haired 22 year old advisor in the International Magical Office of Law and the jurisdiction section of DMLE. Her purse was clamped in her tight grip. She took a deep breath to empty her mind and fortified her occlumency shields to full force, as today she couldn't afford to get caught off guard. She looked around and assessed the crowd. She looked on the security check post; more number of golden gates had been planted on security basis. Following the muggles they had even put a separate baggage frisking counter to check anything you are carrying on you no matter its size or purpose. The mirror in her purse had blood magic on it and a dark magic like that would be caught within seconds. She looked at all gates and found one to be relatively less crowded 'It must be Ness.' She thought shrewdly.

Right now he was the only one who would help her through this. Sometimes it was good to be a solicitor. Ness had been one of the lower ranked Death Eaters and also her first case in favor of a Death Eater. Since he was a minor Death Eater, so his case was easier. His verdict had been on placed table, to go to Azkaban for 10 years, but Daphne had taken up his case at last minute just for practice purpose. She had efficiently turned the case in his favour with the condition that he will give an important lead on a suspicious major Death Eater, which he did have. How he got it wasn't the matter of concern, just its correctness mattered. He had been excused of his crimes as he hadn't committed any major ones and given a job at Security of Ministry. She put on a warm smile and headed with her head held high to the security gate where Ness was.

She reached a desk on the left, over which hung a sign saying security. A badly shaven wizard in peacock-blue robes ignored the irate crowd in favor of his Daily Prophet as they approached. She cleared her throat a little. "Step over there," said the wizard in a bored voice, gesturing to an empty platform where thin and flexible as car aerial, golden semi-automated sensors was present on either side.

Daphne walked closer to him and said softly, "How's it going Ness?"

Ness looked up from the brim of his paper, his eyes widened and he quickly stood up and bowed to her in respect, "Madam Greengrass, how may help you?"

"Oh dear, you see today I'm in such a hurry and I am already running late for a hearing scheduled in 5 minutes so would you be a dear and let me pass through, as routine checkup usually takes 10 minutes. You surely won't want a poor man to be penalized mercilessly." Her sugared voice generally did the trick on males.

"Of course not, Ma'am. I will let you use the security pass but you have to register your wand for identity, please."

She handed him her wand. The wizard dropped it onto a brass instrument, which looked something like a set of scales with only one dish. It began to vibrate. A narrow strip of parchment came speeding out of a slit in the base. Ness tore it off and read the writing upon it.

"Willow wood 9 inches and dragon heart string core, been in use 12 years, as usual."

He handed her wand back and opened a side gate behind his table to let her pass.

She steered away from the desk and back into the stream of wizards and witches walking through the golden gates. She reached a smaller hall where as usual 20 or so lifts could be seen zooming through the floors, and took a deep breath in relief, that was a good start. She took a lift which was right in front of her. She looked at her Omega wrist watch (a present from HIM, which she couldn't bring herself to leave it behind) and noticed she had lost 5 more minutes as it was 9:10.

"Morning, Madam Greengrass." A witch standing beside her wished her. But Daphne was in her own little world still thinking of all successful solicitors like Hanna Abott, Susan Bones, Su Li, and others why did Malfoy choose her. Or was it just a pay back.

She had been one of the major causes that most of the Death Eaters were rotting in an Azkaban cell. Even when she was just 19 she had fought many major cases against Death Eaters including the one which resulted in Lucius Malfoy ending up in a cell at Azkaban for life. Narcissa Malfoy's had been fought by Susan Bones in against. Draco must have thought it perfect for her being the one to bring out his parents. She had expressly asked to fight Lucius's case as she had a personal vendetta to take care of. She vividly remembered the night she had returned to her home after the windup of fifth year. It had been recruiting season for Voldemort and his Dung Eaters army.

FLASHBACK

It was 7 in the morning. A certain dormitory in the dungeons was almost empty except for two witches sitting on a four posters.

"Come on Daph, we are gonna be let. The Breakfasts already started, and I am famished." Tracey whined for a hundredth time while in process of making her best friend to head to breakfast. "Listen if you don't come, I am seriously going to leave you here." She threatened, but nothing to avail. "What happened? Why that dead look? Come on cheer up it's time to go home." Tracey tried another futile attempt to liven Daphne.

But she didn't budge from her bed, "Trace, I saw a dream today." She whispered lightly.

"What of it?" Tracey said in boredom.

"A nightmare." Daphne muttered.

"Come on since when you got senti over a nightmare. Now don't tell me you wet your knickers." Tracey mocked playfully but when Daphne seem to ignore her mocking and stared aimlessly with a hollow look, she knew it was serious.

"Ok Daph, I am all ears."

Daphne was silent for time then a dry whisper croaked out of her mouth, "I returned home with Tori in tow. The front door of the manor stood tall as always. We went over to knock the door but no one opened it for a long time. We banged it for like 15 minutes then I blasted the doors open. We were already panicking from lack of response. We entered the main hall and saw everything was in its place as if not even air may have been disturbed. We called out for mum and daddy but no answer came. I told Tori to stay downstairs and went towards the master bedroom on the second floor. There I saw….saw…" her voice was already breaking as she was sniffing and quivering. "I saw the room in its most pristine state with a couple lying peacefully on the bed. I dreaded going near to the couple as I feared what I would see. But a faint call came to me, my mum was at her weakest, I rushed to her and saw that her skin was dry, pale and her lips were turning blue. She called me again and I was by her side on the bed holding her hand. I called out for Tori to come fast.

She and dad were counting their last breath, they had been poisoned. Mum told me that their time was up and I was to become the new heir of Greengrass. And now I had choose wisely who to follow. Choose for both Tori and me.

Trace they were dying in front me and I couldn't do anything. I and Tori just kept crying and crying." Her tears were already flowing down her cheeks.

Tracey went and hugged her tightly, "Hey, don't worry it was a nightmare and nothing more. Today you go home and write me a letter tomorrow morning that reached home safe and sound and had lavish dinner with entire family and slept with a prince charming dotting your dreams." She soothed. Daphne nodded a bit and slowly dissolved her pain.

It was past 4 P.M. They were on the King Cross'. Her mom had already told them to come on their own as they wouldn't be able to manage, at least on time. Daphne motioned for Astoria to hurry up and follow her. Astoria was a fourth year then. She bade her friends goodbye and hurried up by Daphne's side. Daphne took out her Greengrass manor port-key and they zoned out of station.

They were at the Greengrass floral gardens which was dotted with her favourite Azalea, Rhododendrons, and Ferns. They headed to the large front gate up the cobblestone path. She reached the knocker and hesitated, it felt just like her dream.

"What is it Daphy?" Astoria asked in concern, after so many years she could at least read her expressions where others failed to notice.

"N..Nothing" Daphne knocked the doors and waited and waited and waited. 15 minutes passed and she was still standing there with her hand on the knockers. Her fear was strengthening. She took out her wand and cast mild Bludgeoning spell on the doors. They slowly and silently entered the foyer. Just as in dream the foyer was in its most usual state. She looked around to check anyone hiding. Then she told Astoria to stand there and stay on guard, and proceeded to the master bedroom; she found nothing wrong on the way. She was outside the door, her pulses were running fast. She took a few deep breaths and opened the doors slightly. She kept opening it little by little and dreading what she will see inside. Just as her dream the room was in its most pristine form, a couple was lying peacefully on the bed. Her skin color changed drastically to chalk white. Her hollow eyes were staring blankly at the couple, her mother and father. She opened her mouth to say something but her dry throat didn't allow any voice to come out.

"Da…ph…ne" an uncertain whisper floated through the air to her ears.

Just like her dream it was her mother's call and she rushed to her side and called out for Astoria to come up fast. Her mother's skin was dry, pale and her lips were turning blue. Daphne took her hands in hers.

"Daph…" cough, "Daph listen carefully…" wheeze, "I am sorry child but our time is up..." heave, "We had to choose our side and we chose what we thought was right." pant, "Now in a year you will be officially of age. In the coming war you will be asked to choose your side on the behalf of House of Greengrass." cough…pant, "I believe in you that you will do what is right. Just make sure that Greengrass must be known for their achievements and not for their infringements." Sebastian Greengrass her father, smiled through heavy breadths.

"No…no…no…father please don't do this to me. You are the one who has to guide us. I am not ready." her eyes red and blurry and her tears were already flooding her tear ducts.

"Daph…my princes…we were there till we could. Now it is your journey ahead please listen to your father and choose wisely, you have to choose for both yourself and Astoria." Jeanette Greengrass looked past Daphne to her almost carbon copy. "Tori come baby, come to mama."

Astoria ran to her open arms and threw herself lightly in it, not caring whatever was being said. All she wanted was stay in her arms forever. Jeanette slowly moved her hands through Astoria's head while Sebastian was patting her lightly.

"Daph…" Jeanette whispered her last of strength, "you are the elder. Promise me whatever happens you will protect both of your lives and honour. No compromises."

Daphne promised with all her strength, "I shall."

"Now both of you be a good a girl, we will keep an eye on you." Jeanette smiled serenely.

Daphne didn't want this, she didn't to become head of the house, she wanted her parents back.

"Father…who did this?" she had a guess but she wanted to confirm.

Sebastian stared into her eyes, assessing her thoughts, "You know them." He nodded his approval of what Daphne wanted to do.

The Greengrass family was known as neutrals among Death Eaters families and was detested for it. But there was an exception; it was well known that Malfoys had their eyes set on Greengrass riches and more. They had tried to instigate a marriage contact with the Greengrass' but Sebastian had always curbed these advancements. This had caused a feud between them. This had now grown from a simple feud, now it open war. "Remember, Daphne" heave, "One should attack only when retaliation is impossible." cough, "You can't fight on your own, you need an ally. Be subtle and tactful at whatever you do."

"Remember us children for all we could do for you. Remember we always and will always love you." They both said in unison.

With this both Sebastian and Jeanette held each other's hand and breathed their last breath while looking at each other. Daphne and Astoria stayed all night with their parents, one crying herself dry other simply staring their last loving smile.

After this for their sixth and fifth year they had shifted to Tracey's. Daphne had decided what to do but didn't how to do. She just had to wait for the right moment.

FLASHBACK END

9:20 A.M

She was at her desk and fiddling with her wrist watch. She came out of her reverie and looked around to find she had reached her office.

One thing in so many years after war that ministry had adopted which was one of the ingenious inventions of Muggles was intranet; this had reduced use of inter-floor paper planes thus effectively reducing paper waste. And it was faster way of communication. They had muggle style touch screens on their desk which ran on runic induced electricity, brainchild of none other than Hermoine Granger. The structure was basically same as any MNC (as most muggles call the work place), there was a database which would keep records of their daily tabs on their work schedule on daily, weekly, monthly and their personal order. And it provided inter-communication facility. The database was magically connected (equivalent of muggle WiFi) to all screens and all schedules except personal were available to all employs.

She checked her schedule:

9:30: Wizangamot review case of Andrew mass murder of Little Munching.

12:00-2:00: Lunch Break

3:00: Appointment- Madam Marchback concerning repossession of property.

4:00: Audience requested by Wizangamot for evening session.

Luckily nothing of her schedule was too important to miss. Even though it wouldn't matter after what was going to happen today. She knew somewhere she would be caught at some point, but this of no matter of concern as she had to do it no matter what. She called her assistant at the front desk, "Lucy, cancel all my appointments, as I will be too busy today."

"Yes ma'am" was the polite reply.

"Thank you".

She reviewed the list again. The minor house ledgers were easy to get all she had to do was get permission from her boss to review their cases and get a copy of everything involved during the hearing. She knew Draco basically wanted to acquire all the monetary fund from these accounts that ministry was using. But it wouldn't help as not much was left of them. And she knew there were more than just money in the vaults of Blacks and Sinclair and other major Death Eaters, many things that even the ministry didn't know about.

She came out of her office and straight away headed to Rickmund's office. He was the advisor of head of jurisdiction section of DMLE as this post was basically of Chief Warlock of Wizangamot. But Rickmund's permission would do. He was around here since Fudge's time almost 20 years of experience. She reached the door of his cabin, and knocked gently. Her position in the department gave her the benefit of meeting with people like these without prior appointment or notice.

"Come in."

"Morning, Rickmund." She greeted him as usual. Over the years she had come to know people of her department quite closely, so they were past formalities. She also through her work and commitment had gained his valuable trust. He wasn't a shrewd man but deceiving him wasn't a good idea.

"Morning, Daphne" he was in his chirrupy Wednesday morning mood, "how's it going? Heard you were called for that review of Andrew case?"

"Yeah, but I am dropping it." She said wearily, "Some other work popped in. As a matter of fact I came to you for getting a permission to review some older cases. Here…" she had made a separate list of the Minor Noble houses, "I need to just look up some details of their cases."

"Why, they are, I think, these were Ex-Death Eaters. Right?" he asked evenly while simply looking at her.

"Yeah, that they are, I just wanted to review some points and clauses used in the cases. I just needed to research some notes for my reference." She replied vaguely, hoping that he would buy it.

"My dear, but you yourself fought some major cases. What more reference would want?" he was giving her a bemused look.

Daphne racked her mind to make some more excuse, but was interrupted by a hearty laugh from her senior.

"Oh Daphne! You should look at yourself. It was as if you were asking access to dark secrets of major Death Eaters."

She smiled along him, "Like I would even dream of it."

"Bah, don't worry girl. I will sign a permission note for you. Go research whatever you need." He took out a blank paper and wrote the permission note and handed it to her.

She took the note and after thanking him, she calmly walked back towards her cabin. She changed her track and straight away headed to Record room located on level two, with Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Auror headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services. It was a library for all kind of data related to the jurisdiction, laws and ministry functioning related data. She reached the gates and handed the permission to security present there. He allowed her to proceed.

Inside she straight away headed to the ministry functioning related section. There she found the updated ledgers of all Minor houses. She shrank them and kept in her pocket. No information on Blacks', Peverell's, Sinclair's, Avery's, Gaunt's, Lestrange's and some more. She had expected this from Black's, Sinclair's, Avery's and Lestrange's, however she didn't know anything about Peverall's and Gaunt's. She headed out of the room and nodded to the guard that her work was done, and bee lined for her office.

9:45 A.M

She reached her cabin and dumped all the ledgers on her desk. She drank heavily from the orange juice thermos she had brought along. She rested her head against back rest and thought on how to negotiate with Draco. Even a thought about him simply magnified her headache. So she simply cleared her mind and relaxed.

After about five minutes she was ready to converse with 'Shit Face'. She took out the mirror and looked carefully at it. It entirely resembled just a plain purse mirror. But instead of reflecting anything it was showing only black. But she knew that it was still with Malfoy. She applied the sound barriers on the walls and door.

"Malfoy, are you there?" she asked starkly.

For some time there was no response, and then some movements could be seen. Apparently a black cloth was covering the mirror. Draco's face came into view, "Hello, Greengrass. That's quite early for you to contact, I am impressed if you have finished through at least one list." His arrogant pig-smirk still plastered on his face.

"Listen I obtained all the ledgres that I could in my power. Obtaining anything of the Blacks is impossible. I hope you remember that Harry Potter is Head of the House of Blacks. So if you want anything of Black family's talk to him. As for the Lestrange's and Avery's it is not possible for me to even refer them without getting permission from either Chief Warlok or Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement or Head of Auror office. And I couldn't find anything on Peverells and Gaunts."

"Daphne…Daphne…Daphne, I didn't expect you to be the one full of excuses and no work. I think you are not giving it your best shot. Okay I will help you a bit wait…." The mirror suddenly went black. After some moment the Draco's face came into view field, "I hope this gives you enough motivation." He turned the mirror and a king size bed came into view. Astoria was lying right in the center shackled by her limbs. She was still in her previous night's party grab. Her chest was slowly rising and falling. She looked just sedated as Daphne couldn't see any visible marks of physical abuse.

"She has been like this ever since she was brought here. Until 8:10 P.M, I take the responsibility that she will remain just like this. No one will even enter this room. But after that I won't know anything that happened here. I hope now you will try your best. Hurry up second hour's almost up and there's a lot more to do. Adieu Daphne." He nodded and the mirror went black.

"Arghh….. Fucking ferret" she threw the mirror in a corner of the room, but the mirror was unbreakable. This was not how it was supposed to go. The ferret had an upper hand and she was the helpless lamb and it was eating her from inside. All she could do was follow his instructions and keep an eye for loopholes to strike back. Her wrist watch told her it was already 5 to 10. She had to hurry, and she knew that if she got caught it was all over. This was becoming worse than a nightmare.

She could only think of the guard of record room having some information on where to find these files. She made herself invisible and headed towards the record room again. Luckily not many people were there in the lift. So she easily got to her destination within time. The guard was already bored and tired of sitting there. She had a simple plan, make the guard drowsy enough so that he is half asleep then with leglimency get the information and then use a mild obliviation.

She pointed her wand towards him and whispered, "Somnum" she chanted it over and over until the guard was stooping heavily on his chair. She once again checked if someone was nearby and slowly went closer to him. She pointed her wand in between his eyes and whispered, "leglimens". She sifted through his mind as fast as she could without missing a beat. After 2 minutes she finally found what she wanted. Information on all of the major Death Eaters was kept in a room. And the room was of all places in The Department of Mysteries. All she had to do was when you reach the circular room, ask for the hall of classified files and records and then enter when the door presents itself to you.

'This seems pretty simple. Almost like Hogwart's Room of Requirement.' She shrugged and quickly left the corridor before anyone came to check on the guard.

10:05

She was facing the entrance door to the circular room. Just as it had in the guard's memories, it swung open and she marched forward. She was standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling — identical, unmarked, handle-less 12 black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot. She focused her thoughts on the hall of classified files and records and waited.

There was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. For a few seconds the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around and then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again. Now instead of 12 there were 13 doors present. 'Damn which one is it now.' She tried to remember anything special about the door that the guard knew. She had seen in one of his memories where he was being instructed on working of this place.

'The door generally door appears on the right side of the room from entrance.'

She quickly headed to the right side. There were three doors equally spaced, from which she had to select. She tried the door right in front of her and found it locked and so were the other two.

"Great, that's all I needed. A bloody magically locked door." She harrumphed. She took out her wand, pointed to the central door and muttered the only spell that came to her mind, "Specialis revalio". Nothing happened. She tried again but still no reaction. She was ready to blast it open.

"It needs a key to open."

A voice came from a few feet behind her. She hadn't sensed anyone entering the room and she knew that no one was there besides her earlier. She felt vexed and cheated at being caught so easily and so fast; it was as if today entire world was against her. Still she wouldn't give up a chance to escape. She turned around to face the person. Standing there was an Auror who had constantly surprised her through his acts in past six years. He had a good tall physique of 5'11". With rippling muscles in right places, he was not the person anymore you would want to take on one on one, especially after he had been under the tutelage of Alastor Moody himself. His chubby face had chiseled into a quite handsome one. He even had a small scar just below his left eye giving the tough guy look. His slightly dark brown hair was short cropped and did complement his face. His dull grey eyes were staring her steadily. And he was slowly munching a fruit that she had come to hate since morning.

"Morning, Neville." She greeted him evenly she lowered her wand.

"A very good morning to you Daphne." He nodded towards the door, "You wanted to go in the classified room?"

"Yeah I …I needed some information. Just for my reference purpose." She said sincerely.

"Oh, sure I can get you in. Just need to refer your permission first you know all for security measures." He extended his hand towards her.

Daphne didn't know what to do, from where would she produce a permission slip right now?

"You do have a permission slip, right?" asked Neville. When Daphne didn't answer he sighed, "Come on Daphne, I hope you didn't forget that. You can't get in without it."

Daphne sighed in defeat, "No Neville, I don't have it."

"What's the matter Daphne?" he asked bemusedly.

She looked at him calculating whether telling him would be favourable or not. She knew retaliation at this point would be simply a pain in arse. But even though Neville had become one of her good friends he was still not that close. "Sorry Neville, none that I can tell you."

"I see" he paused, "but Daphne you will have to come with me. I hope you know the repercussions of what you were trying to do. But I think we can help you out, I as a friend at least have the right help you Daphne even if you don't trust me that much."

"No Neville it's not that. I just can't speak of it." She reasoned.

"Is it a, don't involve an Auror problem?" he asked knowingly. She nodded reluctantly.

"Then I know just the one who can help you. And I know you know who I am talking about." He grinned.

'Like there are any better options available.' She thought sarcastically. It wasn't like she didn't want to ask that person for help, she even thought of asking him, but the problem was would he help her after what she had done to him. She had regretted doing it every waking moment. Even Astoria thought what she had done was stupid and inexcusable. Now the past wasn't relevant, what was relevant was whether he would help her or not, even if for Astoria's sake. But she needed help to fight Draco back.

"I don't know Neville, will he help me?" She asked despondently.

"You leave that to me Daphne. Just be honest with him for his cooperation." He gave her a warm smile. "Okay you better become invisible again, and follow me. We don't want people to see you. And as precautions I must inform you that since you tried an illegal entry in a highly classified room, you are already tagged by magic of this place so please don't try to escape; it will simply aggravate the problem."

She nodded and became invisible again. Then Neville led her out of the place.

Time was 10:15 A.M

/DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDGGGGGGGGGGGG

**CHAPTER ENDS**

**Somnum: got to sleep (latin)**

**A/N Next update will be Chapter 9 of The Bond. And I hope I get more than just five reviews for this long chapter. I have a lot of my midnight oil for this.**

**So READ ENJOY and ****REVIEW… **

**So that's it until next time…**


	4. Chapter 4 Third hour

**Chapter 4: Third Hour**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

**Thank you all those who have added my story to their Favourites and Alerts and obviously those who reviewed.**

**Dinomus: yeah it was Neville instead of Harry but you get Harry this Chapter. For rest read out the chapter.**

**ceo55: my muse came to me so here's the new chapter.**

**Lord Lelouch: Actually Daphne is not scarred to approach Harry rather she's just skeptical about how their reunion will work out in rescuing Astoria.**

**Trogo: what can I say – I manage two stories simultaneously and balance the entire thing with my daily life. I type in the time I find myself free.**

**ed-hunter616: thanks for the review.**

**A/N: I give this story maybe a lot more time than my other story as I have to write the chapters right from scratch without anything planned before, so help me write it better by reading and Reviewing a lot and if you review, more people read this story and thus my story becomes much better as it will encourage me write better.**

'_thoughts'_

"_dialogues"_

Chapter: Third Hour

10:30 A.M

The stale-aired interrogation cell was as cold and uncomfortable as it was meant to be. Her daintily trimmed nails drumming lightly against the scoured surface of the table. Her other hand was playing with her with her hair, her eyes darting every now and then at the grey metal door of the cell.

Neville had brought her here. He told he would only inform Mad-Eye about this for her convenience and not involve any other Auror for now. Mad-Eye would be needed in this mission for advice, and that was not a request from Neville even though Daphne was averse about it. Ten minutes ago he said he would be back as soon as he could find the MAN. Ten long minutes and she were still sitting on the rickety stool cum chair. Ten long minutes and not even a single person had asked her for a coffee, just a glass of water, typical of the universal trend followed in all police agencies.

What would she do until the duo arrive. She was hanging on each second passing by. The more time wasted the closer she came to lose her sister. But still what more could she do than to sit here and wait. If she could have, she would have gone with Neville to find Him, but her circumstances and the tag placed on her wouldn't allow her to leave the Ministry premises. So here she found herself sitting in a cell without a wand and only her memories to chew upon in the meantime. She had a feeling that even though not a single soul was in vicinity but somehow she was being watched, she knew that sometimes these methods of making a suspect wait for long hours would get them restless, intimidated and nervous. Her every movement from her breathing to yawning and drumming the table unconsciously and other such things were being monitored. But what was the point of that, she was not the culprit; she was the one being wronged. She sighed and returned to her own little world of reverie.

No matter what she did most of the time in past fifteen minutes her thoughts ended on the same person. Harry Potter-The Boy Who Lived-The Boy Won-The Griffindor Golden Boy-The Best Auror-The Dream Man of Every Teenage Girl and last but not least The Lion of The Snake and Lion duo her 'ex-boyfriend'. Though for many people he was still an enigma but for her he was just Harry and had been that since her sixth year at Hogwarts.

FLASHBACK

She and her little sister were at Tracy's along with the survivors of her house elves. It had been a week since her parents' departure. She was on the rug sack sipping her iced lemon tea with hint of mint. Even though she was staring out at lake in the background of the mansion, her eyes were focused on nowhere corporeal. She knew the miscreants and she knew what she had to do. But to do it she needed help.

'One should attack only when retaliation is impossible.'

'You can't fight on your own, you need an ally.'

'I believe in you that you will do what is right. Just make sure that Greengrass must be known for their achievements and not for their infringements.'

Her father's parting words still echoed in her ears. She needed to retaliate, avenge but she couldn't do it without right support. She knew now that her parents were out of path; many would try to make her and her sister an easy target. For them she would be the weak lamb in a pack of wolves. The Slytherin dorms would be now hunting grounds for her and Tori, with them as prey and Malfoy heading the hunters. Now there won't be any walls preventing him from 'gaining her or her sister.' The thought alone disgusted her. The problem wasn't like she couldn't handle Draco and his bodyguards but with most of the Slytherins now backing his absurdity it won't be an easy stay at Hogwarts. Even though she had Tracy and Blaize with her but it would take her as far as this. Now with Voldemort back in open things were not limited to Hogwarts. She needed a bigger backup a stronger protection and ally. And only Dumbledore was the best person to approach. But he already had lot on his plate so she doubted he would be a wise choice. The next option was the Gryffindor Golden Boy, though not as talented and high on the matter of thinking before moving but which Gryffindor was such, except a few. Anyways the brains department was her; all she needed was someone to execute her ideas. Whatever he did, it did keep the Slytherins at bay and with last year's success in the Dumbledore's Army he did gain some more points on the Slytherins' various hit lists. And now with him submerged in his brooding over his godfather, just a bit of moral support and little more here and there and he would be wrapped around her finger. Obviously Weasley and Granger were there for him, but you could always count Weasley out of loop as he wasn't much into emotions and Granger would simply advise him to submerge himself into books. Daphne was confident that her road was smooth.

Whatever it would mean for him, but for her it would be just a deal- he provides protection and she gives him whatever was moral and under her power and nothing more than friendship. And when the time was right, shoot with him as the shield.

Now she had to wait till the school reopens to implement her plan.

FLASHBACK ENDS

10:35 A.M

Still no sign of anyone approaching her door. She did have the liberty to go out of the room but not beyond the entrance to the corridor of the interrogation cell. She got up and went out. At one end of the corridor was another metal door and at other end were two wooden doors (which she guessed as washrooms) and a water-cooler; even the magical offices sometimes needed its services. Her wand had been submitted at the entrance as no one, not even an Auror was permitted to bring their wands in this room for safety of both prisoner and Auror. She went to the washroom and washed her face and stared at cold blue eyes staring back at her.

She came out of the room and had a glass of water at the water cooler and slowly went back to her seat. She glanced at her wrist watch, five more minutes were lost. Were they even serious about helping her? 'What the hell is he doing? He said it won't take more than fifteen minutes, and it is already 10:40.' She gulped her anger and waited patiently.

She never had time or rather never wanted to revisit the past and look back at what was the mistake preciously and whose it was? Now though she had nothing better to do….

FLASHBACK

It was already a month into the school and Hogwarts was back into her own colour and mood with the new addition of Professor Slughorn as Potions teacher (which was a surprise in itself, for him to return to the light side so openly right when Voldemort revealed himself) and Professor Snape getting his favorite subject Defense Against the Dark Arts. To her disappointment the Dumbledore's Army wasn't revamped so she didn't have an excuse to meet him without arousing any extra ordinary suspicion. One thing was refreshing was that he was now the champion in Potions instead of Granger and Snape didn't have much to point against him in the DADA class. He was often paired against none other than Malfoy and routinely shoved Malfoy's wand up his ass albeit solicitously. But this did not help her, she needed to get near him and there wasn't an opening visible to her, he didn't even look a bit broken or unhealthily brooding. Apparently she had underestimated Weasley and Granger or maybe Harry was good at hiding his emotions, maybe someone finally got the brains to teach him Occlumency. After all Moldypants wasn't just like that infamous for frying your brains. One more thing was that Malfoy stayed more reserved and underground now, she when at Tracy's had heard about Malfoys getting special assignment from Dark Lord (with him staying in their mansion). He had pretty much avoided her and his bodyguards looked like they would everywhere else than with him like he was marked. And not that she cared but he did look paler than usual like he not seen the sun in ages.

Right now she was walking towards her dorms from a very late dinner. The essays Snape started to demand were just horrendously long and equally difficult to find facts upon. She was just at the top of the stairwell moving down towards the dungeons.

"Well… Well… Well… Look who we finally got, The Ice Queen herself." The high nasal accent told her that she was proven wrong about someone… again. She ignored and continued without a pause, her sling bag now tighter around her shoulder. But suddenly she found her path blocked by the troll bodyguards of his.

"You know why I chose you? Because you have that attitude of the lady of a noble house. But you shouldn't forget when to show it and when to not." he was again his usual pompous and egotist Malfoy.

"I'm warning you for the last time Malfoy, leave me and you live." Daphne's monotone told that she was really not in mood to even stay and listen. "Now move aside and we follow our own paths." She took a step but the pea brained trolls didn't seem to get the simple order across.

"You shouldn't misbehave with your savior Daphne. Do you know why you breathe, because my father so pitifully asked the Dark Lord to spare you and your sister that too on my request." Draco came closer to her to touch her.

Daphne froze as her hand was already on her wand within the folds of her cloak. Draco had fully acknowledged her suspicion being wholly true. She turned and her wand was in his face within a second. "Definitely Malfoy, I WILL remember THIS." Her icy blue eyes were in a death stare with Malfoy's quivering grey ones. But Malfoy was ready for this as his wand was pointed on her chest, with the baboons aping his all his moves. Though she was entirely sure that they couldn't move fast enough for her using a close range attack, but she knew Draco had got some 'formal training' from his aunt Bellatrix. So for him she would need a distraction. Little did she know her help was close by.

"Not so fast Daphne, besides do you honestly believe you could take me down on your own? I don't think so." Draco drawled.

Daphne's eye's narrowed and she hissed, "When I'm done with you, remember you called upon this."

"Like I would give you the chance… Stup.." before Draco could understand and react to what was happening he was already crumpled at Daphne's feet. Crabbe and Goyle just gaped at their object for protection. Everything happened so fast that their minds couldn't handle it. Just as suddenly Crabbe was blasted of his feet unexpectedly down the hall and crashed into an armour. Goyle started sweating profusely with his wand shivering in the fear of the unknown. Daphne herself was alert for any surprises coming her way. A hood slowly uncovered the mess of raven black hair, hiding the lightning bolt scar and vaguely wrapping up the iridescent green eyes beneath the round framed glasses of the spects. A small smirk was playing on the lips. Beside his face only the hand holding the wand was visible.

'So he does have the invisibility cloak.' Daphne noted.

"Is he yours or mine?" Harry Potter to rescue asked.

"Mine." Daphne replied equally precisely. She swiftly turned around and struck her heels at an unwary Goyle's groin. She finished off with a single stunning spell. "Wake Malfoy, he is my target. Cover yourself, and don't interfere in my way." She commanded in rapid succession.

Harry simply stared at her for a moment the pulled his hood up and revived the ponce. Draco frantically searched for his attacker and found only Daphne waiting for him to notice her. "What hap.."

She cut in, "Your boyfriends, one over there at the end of the corridor, and the other over here." She pointed the mass spread on the floor. "Pick your wand, fast" she commanded her authority.

Draco looked at his wand then back at her, and slowly went for his wand. He paused then rapidly picked it and shot a stunner at her. Daphne easily parried it away and answered it with a stronger version of Petrificus Totalus. Draco rolled out of its path and sent a stream of fire her way. Daphne deftly produced foam which created a wall between them. Draco randomly started shooting stunners and bone breakers in every directions hoping to catch Daphne off guard.

Daphne quietly spaced herself from the foam wall and kept dodging the curses coming her way. She made herself invisible and waited for the foam to clear.

When the foam cleared Draco found himself standing alone, he surveyed for any movements around armors standing. Satisfied with the results he lowered his wand slowly only to be struck by a simple disarming spell.

"It seems dear aunt Bella ain't a good teacher, eh Malfoy?" Daphne's cold voice reeked off her disappointment and sarcasm at the fast and abrupt culmination of their little skirmish. She canceled the charm on herself. She removed the strand of hair covering her left eye and gazed Draco indifferently. "I hope this was enough for you. Next time I won't be so considerate." She waved her wand twice in anti-clock wise direction making Draco's tongue stick to his nose. Then flicked the wand upwards followed by a jab towards roof and then levitated a stunned Draco to mark on the roof. Draco might have to sacrifice some of his chest skin if he wanted to come down and also he would have to wait for week before he would be able to sit.

"Remind me never ever to cross a Slytherin's path especially The Ice Queen." Harry commented with respect. He had never seen a student move so fluidly; even in his DA this would have been an achievement.

"Thank you Mr. Potter, for both your comment and help." Daphne smiled in gratitude. She finally got the chance she wanted. "May ask what a Gryffindor is doing in the dungeons just before the curfew starts?"

"Oh… Professor Slughorn had called me… so I was just returning my way and I saw … well this." He waved his hand towards everything. "And …"

"You couldn't see a girl getting hurt so the Gryffindor came to the rescue." She completed in false mockery.

"What… No …. Yes" Harry's stammered, while Daphne enjoyed a fleeting laugh which was joined by a hesitant Harry's own laugh.

"It's okay, I needed help sincerely." She confessed.

Harry looked up towards Draco and asked with genuine interest, "What was that spell that you used on him to stick his tongue lick that?"

"A modified version of Langlock, you want to learn?" She asked hopefully.

Harry looked at her briskly and back at Malfoy in deep thought.

"These are not the only ones I know." she offered further. He looked back at her, "Why would teach me anything?"

"Why shouldn't I?" she replied with her own question.

"I don't know, with all this Slytherin Gryffindor animosity, why would you want to associate with me?" Harry retorted.

"In that case Mr. Potter, consider it as a token of thanks." She replied warmly and conjured a parchment. She handed it Harry and turned around and headed towards her dorms caring to move certain areas in an exaggerated fashion.

Harry couldn't help but stare at her swaying derriere. When she vanished around the corner he turned around the parchment and read, 'Meet me on Friday on the third floor's third classroom on the left side of the grand staircase. DG' He looked back where he had last seen the girl and smiled unconsciously. He didn't why but liked the girl more than in just friendly manner.

FLASHBACK ENDS

**A/N: I know this is abrupt and maybe annoying but I got stuck on how to proceed and this was also going way too long for a single chapter. But rejoice you get one extra chapter.**

**And also my exams are coming up, so next update will be after Sept 5.**

**So Read and****REVIEW**** A LOT (SIC) or else you won't get faster updates.**

**Until Then….**

**Au Revoir….**

**Shampakher….**


	5. Chapter 5 Third hour continued

**Chapter 5: Third Hour Continued**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

**Thank you all those who have added my story to their Favourites and Alerts and obviously those who reviewed.**

**riegret8: For that Draco plan failing… well just continue reading the story.**

**Jiraya: Thanks for your reviews.**

**Trogo: Yup the ten minute wait did turn into an hour long wait read this chapter to know why.**

**Lord Lelouch: Yes there's a back story of them and quite big one enough to become a parallel story. The events do differ from HBP and DH but basic story is same. As for Harry's skills he certainly won't be a luck prone Boy-Who-Lived with some Gryffindor bravery. I don't see much Politics being involved in a story with timeline of 12 hours. Exams went fine so your good luck wish worked. And the chapter is certainly longer as you can see.**

**Ceo55: You must be wondering when my September 5 would come since its October 5. Well you see I got busy in my college work but I'm back with new vigor for all my readers.**

**I have decided to include the history of their relationship in between the main story throughout the story so I get more space to describe things.**

**A LEMON AT THE END YOU HAVE BEEN INFORMED**

**Now its new chappy time.**

**Summary: Voldemort's dead, but the death eaters have not disappeared they have just gone underground. What's more? Astoria's been kidnapped and Death Eaters are behind it. Daphne has got 12 hours to uncover the plot and rescue her sister with someone's help. Ch5 up and a lemon included.**

'thoughts'

"dialogues"

Chapter: Third Hour Continued

10:50 A.M

In one place Daphne was still lost in her reverie, in another place a certain raven haired man was incidentally moving along same memories.

Flashback

Harry was walking along the murky dusty corridor of the third floor, the least visited area of the school. The door to the second classroom just passed. He stopped before the third classroom, looked both the sides of the aisle and then pushed the door open. Entire room was empty with some chairs placed haphazardly. The room was dull and dimly lit like the halls. He walked in cautiously and reassured for the room to be empty. He looked at his wrist watch and the time was 7 p.m, about time they served the dinner. He took a random chair and waited for her to come. She had sent another message about when to meet.

Suddenly felt he was not alone, he looked around only find the other person in a dark corner besides the untouched door. She was her as usual calm and composed nature. She looked at him enjoying his gobsmacked state, and greeted, "Evening Potter".

He continued to stare at her for a few seconds then asked, "Disillusionment?"

"No Potter, a much better spell. It is actually Shadow confinement. The name may be misleading but it's a very effective spell, as it works almost like your invisibility cloak by hiding the caster and their movements in the shadows completely. The only problem is that you can't do other spells while using it."

"Never heard of this spell before." He commented.

"A Greengrass specialty. We were originally assassins for the pureblood families before and during Grendelwald period." She explained equably.

Five years in Hogwarts he had learned one thing that you could never expect a Slytherin to share any kind of facts, and yet here was one of the most reserved Slytherin initiating a civil conversation with him. The only reason she would do this was that she sought something from him. "What do you want from me?"

She smirked, "Straight to point, not very Gryffindor of you Potter."

"It's the best way to deal with a Slytherin." He countered.

Her smirk if not only grew, "My answer is that, I need your help." For Harry the statement was entirely out of earthly reference. He looked a mix of someone waking up to the wrong end of the wand while wondering how it happened in the first place.

"What does that mean?" he asked warily.

"Exactly what you heard. Long story short suddenly I'm not a very likely person whom to associate with in Slytherin. And that is why I need your help. You will teach me how to defend myself and my sister in a situation." She concluded precisely. And Harry knew she was not telling everything.

"Why me? Why not your friends? Surely you would have someone you can trust in your house." He returned.

"What do you know of Slytherins?" she asked smartly.

"Just that they do show unity on a upper front but what goes inside I can only guess." He replied.

"You got that right. We maybe united on upper front but inside it's not a fairy tale. But that's not the agenda. What I want is your reply on my original request. Will you help me?" she looked straight in his eyes and tried passive Legilimency. Though she didn't pry much deeper but she knew one thing that his defense was worse than an average occlumence of his age. Even his natural defense had been ruptured by the amateur training he must have received.

"How can I believe what you are saying? After all you could sell me off to Voldemort for your 'security'." He emphasized on 'security'.

Daphne narrowed her eyes with a stoic expression set on her just a few seconds earlier jovial face, "I expected this question….. To make it clear, I never had and won't ever associate with a Death Eater or their groupies and certainly won't with that snake face. Just know this, my family has always remained neutral in all the wars of Voldemort, if ever forced we will still not go over to his side no matter what."

Harry knew words could be bent and twisted so believing them alone won't get you lead in right direction, "My question's still the same; how do I take you on your word?"

Even though her straight forwardness won't let her control the direction of the conversation but it was a required sacrifice, "What will convince you?" she asked patiently.

"The honest truth." He answered plainly.

Her eyes downcast, "Fine, to put it simply, my sister and I are both in danger. This summer something… disastrous happened with us, our only safe guard is this castle as long as we remain in a teacher's sight. Even our dorms have turned into the hunting and recruiting grounds of future Death Eaters. I need some extra protection and support which can keep them at bay away from us." Even the thought of things that could transpire in the bowels of the castle made her feel disgusted. Contrary to the belief bestiality did accompany status in society though not prominent in some but still present somewhere in the backdrop. It is up to you how to use this skill; it's your conduct and act that counts in the end. She looked back in his eyes with all sincerity, "Potter I know you got supporters but I know who are real and who are fake and freeloaders. Potter I believe, that you have fought Voldemort one on one, you may call it luck but I call it skill you can't just escape him when he counts all your little movements. If you like it this way we can keep it a deal. I told you what I want from you and I know I have something that you want. What do you think?"

"So you want me to teach you how to fight back and in return you give me something that I want. What do you know of my needs?" he countered.

"Right now, a way to survive this downfall. We both know you lack the proper skills to fight him one on one and defeat him. Courage can get you just so far. I can give you knowledge and some other skills which I will be better than you at. Dumbledore may treat you as a golden boy Potter, but face the truth he won't be there always and you have to learn to stand on your own. He can't look after you every time. There will be a moment that you won't be able to protect yourself even under his watch full eye, what will you do then? How will you fight?"

A vivid recollection skimmed through his mind of how easily Voldemort had gained almost complete control over him effortlessly. He had almost killed Dumbledore, and before he was helpless when Sirius died, he was weak when tried the Crutiatis on Bellatrix while she laughed at his attempts. She even went ahead to explain him how to perform the spell. No he couldn't let this happen he had already lost too much, further loss was unaffordable. He looked in her eye regretting the fact he couldn't use passive legilimence to know what other thinks about. But he saw sincerity, seriousness, hope, laced with a bit of fear and maybe truthfulness that whatever she had said was genuine. "What can you give?" he asked astutely.

"I know that your occlumency is bad. I am efficient at both passive and active leglimence and occlumency, not up to Voldemort's but sufficient against the Death Eaters, after all it is a survival instinct passed down our family. So I don't need to intrude your mind forcefully to know your shields, I can feel it from the surface. Besides that I can provide with a wide selection of spells ranging from destructive to assassination explicit, some dark some not so dark. Summing it up, entire Greengrass library of spells. This is what I can give you." She reclined back on her seat and waited for his reply.

He could see it was a deal to profit from, besides where else could he get such an assortment of spells with a good conversant help. He needed help to survive the oncoming war and he knew it. "Okay we got a deal. I teach you how to defend and you provide me with the knowledge." He held out his hand.

She took it gracefully without a pause and shook it, "It's a deal." They both rested back on their chair going over the deal.

"What now?" Harry asked.

"We can start right away with the occlumency training if you want." She proposed. He agreed with it.

"Did you have any kind of training with it before?" she had sensed that he had, as to the degree his natural shields had been ruptured she could see his previous experience was not one to share.

He looked down to the floor; he still hated Snape for playing with his mind instead of helping him, "Yes, last year Dumbledore assigned Snape to teach me Occlumency. Not a great job he did at that." He always attributed to it the fact that Voldemort intruded his mind easily just because Snape couldn't care less about his nemeses son.

"I can see that. You will have to just forget everything he taught you, we start afresh. Now follow me…" she closed her eyes took a deep breath in, and slowly released it. Her movements caught Harry's teenaged eyes' attention and he could not help but watch her chest rise and slowly fall. When he realized what he was doing, he felt flushed and closed his eyes, trying to clear his thoughts, lest he embarrass himself.

He followed her lead and "Good," he heard her soft voice. "Keep your eyes closed and let your mind go still. You can't think of nothing for very long, therefore you must think of something. So I want you to find a memory, or really an image, of something that is very neutral, very same, very uniform, and preferably all encompassing. It can be an image of the sky, the water in the ocean if you've been there, a large table cloth that's a single color, or whatever you know and can easily pull up. Tell me when you have that."

Harry searched his memories. A school robe did not seem big enough. The sky seemed too impersonal. The lake at Hogwarts might do. Then he remembered something from his childhood - lying in his cupboard. He would lay there with his eyes open and just experience the absolute darkness at night; he was not able to see his hand in front of his face most nights. He took that blackness and easily brought it to the front of his mind and let it sit there for a few seconds. It was easy to hold it. "OK," he finally told her.

"Very good." Her voice was still very soft. "Just think about that image, become one with it, make it you. Know it so well that anything else is wrong and you instantly know it. Anything else is a ripple, a light spot or a dark spot, it's an imperfection. Become the sameness."

Harry pulled the darkness to him letting it wash over and through him. He nodded slightly.

The voice came back from far away. "Now, I'm going to try something very gentle. When you feel the disturbance, let it push against your image so you know where it is and then wrap your image around it. Contain the imperfection in a pocket of your image and hold it here." The voice paused before it softly said, "Legilimens."

Suddenly, there was a tiny spark of light from the left side. Harry pushed the darkness towards the spot, then like a blanket, he let it wrap around the spark and the spark went away. He smiled to himself. Another spark came from his right, it was easily findable. He also wrapped it up and smothered it.

"Very good, Harry. Now come back to me, Harry. Come to my voice and open your eyes."

Slowly, the darkness faded and he felt like he was back in the room. Opening his eyes, he saw Daphne with a big smile on her face.

"Congratulations, Harry. You've successfully repelled a mental attack with Occlumency."

He hissed, "Yes!", and pumped his fist into the air. Daphne laughed. He looked at her all in smiles. "That was so much better than Snape I could hug you." As he realized what he said he turned red and looked away.

Daphne lightly laughed. "So much for the famed Gryffindor courage. Come here you big prat, I won't bite," she teased him and opened her arms.

Screwing up his courage, Harry leaned forward and gave her a light hug. He had no idea why she was doing this, but he accepted it anyway. "Thank you so much," he fiercely told her. As she patted his back a few times, he realized she was a combination of hard muscle and soft flesh. She felt very nice. Pulling away, he looked at her a little differently.

"What?" she asked.

"You're, uh, you've got a lot more muscle than I expected." He blushed again as he realized how forward that might sound.

She chuckled at him and her expression softened. "I do some exercises to stay in shape to more easily keep the boys in line. I'm not nearly as muscular as a boy, but I'm sure I'm more so than the average girl. If you really like muscles on a girl, you should get together with Millicent." She smiled wickedly at him.

He shook his head quickly. "No thanks!"

Daphne smiled. "You're something else, Potter. I suppose I didn't know what you were really like, what with all the rumors, but you're really a nice guy underneath all the hype."

"Thanks," he had trouble looking at her. "You're pretty nice too. I didn't know what to expect and I couldn't really find out much about you other than you're smart, or at least you make good grades. You seem so above everything, but I finally worked out that was just a side-effect from knowing Occlumency."

She acknowledged that with a nod. "Very good reasoning. It's a shame we never really got to know one another sooner, you're not bad Potter."

"Harry, all my friends call me Harry."

With a tilt of her head as if thinking it through, she finally smiled at him. "And I'm Daphne. Well, let's call it a night. Before next time, I want you to practice drawing that image up to the front of your mind. The more you practice the faster you'll be able to do it. Eventually, you'll do it so fast it's like it's always there for you."

"All right. How about Saturday night?" he asked.

She smirked at him. "Are you trying to ask me out on a date, Harry?"

He raised both eyebrows in surprise. "Huh? What?"

"'arry… 'arry" a distant voice came from somewhere around him.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"'arry… 'arry are you wiz me?" the voice was soft, melodious and carried a French touch with it.

The raven haired black man blinked twice and looked around. The pair of emeralds met with a pair of dark golden eyes. The man better known as Harry Potter among the masses had been doing this a lot lately. Just like that no matter the place or time he would become lost in past forgetting about his surroundings completely like right now when they were climbing up the stairs.

"Yeah, Lyra" he smiled at her.

"Look at my baby 'e looks so tired. Poor guy, zey make do a lot of work. Ain't zey?" she asked pouting a little to give the extra cute look, while caressing his cheeks.

"Yeah a lot." Harry agreed wearily and leaned in her soft palms. He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed it lightly.

"Not to worry anymore, now zat you are wiz me." Her accented sultry voice rolling in his ears making him want drown in it. She kissed lightly on the corner of his lips. Slowly drifting it in the center but just when he was about to capture them she moved away. A confident and evil smirk dancing on her red lips, "Uh… uh… uhh, not so fast. First open the door. And zen I freshen up. And zen…" she lazily drifted her daintily trimmed nail over his already half open shirt beneath the informal leather coat and stopped just above the belt. Harry groaned and took hold of her, "What if I don't want to wait?" he asked mock forcefully as his eyes told the truth.

"Zen who stopped you, monsieur." She whispered softly. He looked in the depths of her eyes, he saw himself and something akin to hunger, lust and no regrets, something they both were right now feeling for each other. He covered the distance between them and captured her lips lightly. One of his favourite thing of her was the way she tasted, vanilla with a hint of honey.

She melted in his arms and pressed her lips into his. He shifted against her lips and slowly plucked on her upper lip. She returned his gesture by sucking on his lower lip. They alternately changed their positions against other's lips. His hand slowly drifted down her back and rested lightly on her voluptuous ass and squeezed it a bit, causing her to take deep breath. He chose that very moment to make a move. He slipped his tongue down her vulnerable mouth rolling over her soft tongue. She gasped under him and started sucking his tongue. He moved it over her teeth and gums exploring every nook and corner of perfect mouth. She made to push him off her mouth to gain access to his mouth, but he proved to be more rigid and stronger. She leaked some of her aura to mollify him, but unfortunately for her he did prove to be as resilient as Fleur had told her.

"That's ineffective on me." Harry goaded but that was his mistake, as Lyra assaulted him and gained control over the situation by keeping him confined in his mouth. The one thing that she loved about him was that taste of fresh air of him, she loved flying and he was just like her. His muscular jaw worked placidly and adjusted to her need. She licked on his inner cheeks and fought with his tongue. This was not the best but one of her fantasied kiss. She was about to plunge deeper but he moved back. Still close to her face he whispered serenely, "You wanted to freshen up… Well that's the room." He pointed to the bathroom in the room.

Lyra looked around and was impressed (astonished but Harry needn't know that) that they had already reached his room. "Awww… and 'ere I zought zat you were enjoying ze kiss." She pouted and pretended to look disheartened.

Harry knew the game but tonight his prize was in losing the game, "Alright, we do whatever you want." He conceded. And it brought one of the brightest smiles on her face he had ever seen, "You are my sweeeeetest baby mon amour." she kissed on his cheek merrily and sauntered to the bathroom.

He chuckled and moved to remove his clothing. He removed his shirt and stood there bare chested when a sudden gust of wind blew in. He went to the window and closed it. He saw the reflection on the window. He saw himself staring back at him and behind him a familiar elegant attractive raven black haired woman. He quickly turned around only to find Lyra standing there trying to reach out to him.

"'arry what 'appened. you look stressed. 'arry you know you can share eet wiz me." She was genuinely concerned for him.

"Nothing I was just imagining." He waved it off casually.

"Are you sure?" she asked again.

"Yeah, trust me I'm fine… Annnnnd Ohhhh man just look at you. You are … I mean just … like seraph." She indeed looked like a seraph just graced upon the mortal lands from the high heavens. Her body as perfect as you could imagine, the curves just where they should be. She was graced with long athletic supporting her lithe body, her golden waist length hair cascading down her shoulder covering her half chest. Her smooth belly inviting him to kiss it, lick it and play with it as long as he could. The belly button played hide and seek with him behind her golden hair. He noticed that she was already aroused as he could clearly make out the shape of her hardened nipple behind one of the only two piece of clothing that stuck to her like her skin.

His stammering enticed a dulcet giggling from her, "Oooooo big boy you flatter me." she purred. Her rising and falling chest made him skip a heartbeat or two.

"It's nothing but the truth." He smiled. He couldn't wait anymore, he had already been tortured enough by her just standing there and teasing him with her aphrodisiacal self.

"Awwww come 'ere, come to your angel." She opened her arms for Harry.

He grinned and scooped her up in his arms; she straddled him by his waist and removed the bangs of hair from his eyes. They both starred in each other's eyes and she leaned in to capture his lips. They kissed slowly enjoying the other's closeness. He gently lowered her on the bed without losing the contact and settled beside her. He parted with her mouth and drifted on her flawless jawline. He moved onto the neck and kissed just below her ear lobe and gave her a hickey to remember. She hissed and he proceeded down her neck.

She was loving just the way he was treating her. Goosebumps ran down her spine when kissed just below her ear. She gasped and bit him on the ear lovingly. While he ministered her shoulder she nibbled on his ear lobe. Her hands moved down his waist and undid the leather belt. Then she unbuttoned his Levis jeans, unzipped the fly and tugged on it remove it. Harry complied with her and lifted himself a bit to let his jeans slip down. Now he was just in his boxers. She made him lie on his back with her still straddling him. She bent down and kissed him deeply. Then she slowly moved down on his muscular chest. She gently moved over his chest and felt his abs. she moved again back to his lips and continued kissing him. Meanwhile her hand skimmed over his Greek god style torso and tugged on his boxers. He again complied with her and let her remove his only clothe. She gazed at his member with lust and hunger. He was not unnaturally large or thick but normal. "You are good." She gripped him tightly and slowly moved her hand jacking him up and down while her other hand explored his torso.

He couldn't define how much he was enjoying it. He groaned, "Lyra" and slowly moved his hand upto her chest, he rubbed and pinched her nipples above bra making her moan his name, "'arry". His other hand moved to the hook of her bra and undid it. He hooked a finger under a strap of her brassier and tugged it down. It simply slid off her milky smooth shoulder. But her clothe got stuck in between her breast and her arm. He pulled her other strap down and the bra dropped down effortlessly revealing a pair of voluptuous D cup breasts. He marveled the picturesque sight in front of him, a blonde bare above waist straddling him, her eyes closed and lips slightly parted and chest moving rhythmically with each placid breath, something out of dream. His already stiff member started throbbing with the extra blood now cycling through it. Her wet womanhood was just lumbering above him so he made the effort to push his pelvis against her. She gasped but started teasing him by sensually rubbing against him while kissing him hard. Her breasts pressed hard against his chest, he could feel the stiffness of her nipples poking him.

Lyra looked down and grinned mischievously at him while conjuring two strips of satin. She took his right hand over his head and tied it to the wooden headboard of the bed. When she bent down her breast swayed like bob of pendulum just above his face. He lifted his head and caught her erect nipple in his mouth and slowly sucked on it. She hissed then giggled and continued tying his other hand. After securing both his hands against the headboard she bent down further giving Harry more access to her racks.

He buried his head completely in their warmth, and enjoyed the arousing aroma filling his senses. He slowly kissed on the inner sides of those visually pristine danglers inciting throaty grunts and shuddered breath from her. She pushed him further in her cleavage encouraging his actions. He grinned and continued licking and kissing them. He shifted and took her nipple in her mouth and started fondling it skillfully with his tongue. He could feel her wetness on his penis as she pressed her hot core hard against him. Her heavy breath ruffling his hair, suddenly she heaved and moaned loudly, "'arryyyyyy…" and her chest moved frantically as Harry increased his pace on her breasts. A deep shuddered pant and she fell on him with him panting still buried in her cleavage, her intoxicating aroma accompanied with the scent of her juice and sweat assaulted his senses.

She moved down and kissed him deeply while removing her skimpy love juice soaked underwear. She grinned and stood up. His eyes tried look everywhere on her body at the same time. She was clean shaved with her hot pink core throbbing for more action. Her juices were flowing down her inner thighs; it only made him want her more desperately. She turned around and wiggled her heart shaped derriere to aggravate him and giggled when he groaned. She turned back to him and slowly lowered herself. The tip of his penis was rubbing on her swollen hot entrance; she grabbed it and slowly inserted the head in her folds. They both moaned and she bent to lock her lips with his, her tongue fighting him with all force while Harry gradually progressed inside her hot wet silky folds.

The feeling of ecstasy overwhelmed him and he wanted to thrust in with full force. He looked in her eyes and asked, "Ready?" she nodded and he rammed in hard. She chose his shoulder to relive her stress. The deeper he went the deeper her nails and teeth dug in him. They paused for her to adjust to him while sharing a passionate kiss. He knew she was fine when her hips started rolling and her wet warm folds sucked him while she moved. She moved slowly in a circular way to adjust him in a better way. "Uhhh… Lyra…" his pelvis automatically grinded in her. She sat up straight and started picking up tempo with Harry moving along her. Her creamy white breasts jiggling and bouncing with her each round up and down accompanied with those sexy grunts and moans, they were making him hornier. He started pushing deeper in her and she gasped and laughed enjoying his actions. She groaned and hissed, "Yessss… deeper… faster… harder. Ohhh Mon Dieu 'arry"

He was at his limit and he knew he would come anytime so he started slamming harder; her folds were sucking him with renewed vigor as he knew she was also near. Her panting and breathing his name made him want to hold her close to him while he filled her with his love seeds. He pulled his hands with all his might and tore the cloth binding him. He brought her down and greedily sucked on her on her breasts while speeding up. Her walls were growing thicker making it tougher for him to move, he could feel her body shiver as she was ready to release. He growled "Yeah cum for me baby." He could feel his pre cum already mixing with her previous load and smoothing up his movements.

She could not hold it any longer he had proven to be a tougher challenge to her, she screamed "ARRY I'M CUMMING. Ugh… Ughhh… Ummmmm… Oh! 'arry Oh!" she started bucking deeper in him while he pumped harder in her. She growled and hissed, "Awhhhhh… Yesss…..Yessss". Her eyes closed and her breath got stuck a heartbeat or two missed, she released her flood and felt Harry fill her womb. They both panted and in between shared small kisses while releasing their last of the load.

He felt their warm love juices leaking down his shaft. He settled both of them down on the bed and slowly removed himself from her but kept himself on her clits. She made to protest for him detaching from her but he kissed her deep and passionately while covering themselves with a blanket.

"Zat was a very good one, Mon amour" she whispered in is ears and gave it love hitch.

"I know that already." He whispered back while nibbling her neck. He looked at the door of his room and groaned, "Don't be surprised if someone bursts through that door." He warned her.

And shortly after he said that the door did burst open, "Finally I found you." A triumph looking Neville Longbottom strode in the room disregarding the condition of the occupants. He looked around and found his object of search in the bed wrapped in arms of a smoking hot blonde Veela. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked casually.

"Yes." Harry answered condescendingly.

"Never mind I got work for you." This was Neville's way of revenge, after all Harry had disrupted his last evening with Susan Bones and that too not in a very civil way like he did to him now.

Time was 11:15 A.M

**CHAPTER ENDS….**

**A long long wait, a long long chapter with a bonus lemon.**

**Next up – Harry meets with Daphne. What's gonna happen when come face to face after such a long time and with the circumstances where time is so important to Daphne.**

**Chater 3 of A debt this week and Chater 11 of The Bond next week.**

**So READ and ****REIVIEW****…**

**Until next time…**

**Adios….**


	6. Chapter 6 Fourth hour

**Chapter 6: Fourth Hour**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

**Thank you all those who have added my story to their Favourites and Alerts and obviously those who reviewed.**

**AND A THOUSAND SORRY TO ALL THOSE READ THIS STORY FOR BEING EXTREMELY LETHARGIC ON MY PART.**

**I tried to add some humor, what do you think?**

Chapter: Fourth Hour

"Never mind I got work for you." This was Neville's way of revenge, after all Harry had disrupted his last evening with Susan Bones and that too not in a very civil way like he did to him now.

Time was 11:15 A.M.

"Doesn't matter, I'm busy. Close that door after you." Harry closed the discussion.

"Aww… and I love you too." Neville pouted. "Hurry up now. You wouldn't want Mad-Eye to wait on you." He bent down, picked his pants and threw it at him. Harry grudgingly took it. Making Mad-Eye wait ended in personal training session - Mad-Eye hurling his favorite repertoire of spells and you dodging wand-less, in the name of timing your reflex (which wasn't exactly a walk in park).

"At least wait outside." Harry grunted offended at being called for work on a no work day.

"You didn't exactly leave me when I was with Susan." Neville shot back.

"I turned around." He said desperately.

"No you didn't you turned to talk to Susan who was sitting opposite to me. And I had to wear the pants under the sheet balancing on the sofa." He still held a grudge against Harry for that. They both glared each other for some time, with Harry finally buckling in and grudgingly wore the pants under the sheets while Neville chatted amicably with Lyra who was enjoying the banter. Harry got out of the bed collecting fresh clothes headed to the washroom. He came out five minutes later found both of them deep in discussion over which colour was better raven black or midnight black. He sighed dejectedly.

"Lyra you can stay or do as you please. And Neville stop ogling or I will tell Susan." He grumbled and dragged Neville out.

Lyra sent a flying kiss to both of them. Neville grinned, "She is a lovely and cute girl besides of a hot damsel."

"Don't let Susan hear you. No matter what I want my 'minion' in one piece." Harry deadpanned.

"Oh give it up Harry, you won't ever be a Dark Lord." Neville groaned for hundredth time.

"That's very supportive of you." Harry huffed and twisted on spot, apparating to the Ministry of Magic.

"I try my best." Neville shrugged and followed him.

They popped in entrance hall and marched towards the checking area. "So what's the situation?" Harry asked.

"Your girlfriend's in trouble." Neville replied and got on the platform.

Harry arched an eyebrow, "Lyra's absolutely fine." They headed to where Daphne was.

"Not your muse, your girlfriend as in your love of life, your soul mate." Neville insinuated.

Confused Harry insisted, "I still say Lyra's absolutely fine."

Neville ignored him and continued towards the lift. Harry glared at his 'minion'(friend), "You will answer your Dark Lord right now, minion." Several people stared incredulously at Harry while others shook their head knowingly or simply ignored. Harry, since he left the post of captain Auror, had taken up a self assigned project of becoming a Dark Lord (the result of him being almost dead out of boredom, in his words of course).

All the way Harry kept muttering to himself like a ten year old and Neville continued on his way humming to himself. They reached the interrogation corridor, submitting their wands at the entrance they went inside. Harry continued behind Neville, retuned to thinking of the very hot blonde in his apartment. At first he didn't even notice the occupant of the room they entered.

11:25 A.M

A hot headed Daphne fed up of being kept for more than an hour in a dingy depressing cell, started pacing in the room. Designing various plots of repaying for loss of her dear time to the imbecile duo, 'I thought better of Neville.' Just then she heard the door to her cell open. She looked up and saw the man she was most uncertain of how to react, when they met (her plans all forgotten momentarily).

Harry walked straight into Neville, "At least warn me, Nev" he massaged his shoulder while frowning at Neville.

"Harry, meet your client Daphne Greengass." Neville introduced cheerfully.

The name hadn't yet registered in his mind, "Good morning ma…" the face however did. He schooled his features to fake cheerful, "My friend has seemed to make a mistake. I'm sorry on his behalf. Your agent will be arriving shortly. Neville take me to my client." He said and advanced to the door.

Neville glared at his friend but Daphne kept her calm, "Harry I need your help."

Harry paused and said without turning, "You knocked the wrong door, ma'am. Don't waste your time after me."

At last Daphne cracked, "Waste my time… waste mine… FUCKING HELL I WAS WASTING MY TIME INDEED. Do you know what's at stake? Tori's life's at stake. I've got just eight hours to save her. Tell me Potter, what do you think now? Who's wasting time, me or you?" she was furious with this insufferable twat, furious enough to drag him straightaway to fight Malfoy, she didn't how and didn't think for the consequences.

Harry's grip tightened on the handle, he muttered stoically, "Neville take the notes and bring it to me. I will take up from there."

This got Daphne in cross, "I wouldn't have asked your help if I could have asked it from Aurors, Potter. Fine go on then be the ruthless savaged beast. What happens? An innocent dies, Tori dies, not much…" she knew this would do. Astoria was like a sister he never had, and he would go any lengths, do anything for her.

Harry turned around and glared at her, "What are you waiting for? Blurt it already, girl."

"Stop being a jerk Potter. I'm not enjoying this anymore than you." She retorted. They were both already at each other's throat.

"SHUT UP! Both of you just shut up." Neville butted in. He glared at both of his best friends, "we are here for an important mission which includes a very precious life. So stop being a jerk both of you and settle down." he sighed and asked gently, "You really don't want Astoria to be dead do you?" and they grunted no, "Good now we settle down and talk civilly. At least do this for her." They glared at each other but settled on the chairs nevertheless.

"Good, now Daph brief him." Neville stood beside Harry while Daphne explained the happenings of the day.

"So Malfoy's behind this" Harry looked at Daphne (he felt a strange feeling return when looked in those beautiful eyes). He averted his and went for the lists Daphne still carried on her. "And he wants ledgers, documents and smuggle the homicidal lunatics out. Wow just how stupid can he get." He then goes through the lists, "Alas I stand corrected, Black family ledger, I hope he doesn't throw a tantrum before his dad when he doesn't get these. I don't it Lucius would appreciate that while in Azkaban." He flipped the lists back on the table, and still refused to look back at Daphne. He felt conflicted within, 'It shouldn't matter, what happened between us was in past. Our problem shouldn't affect Astoria.'

He went into pure business mode he normally kept for not-so-pleasant-clients. For him Daphne was not more than a potential client. He looked back at her and spoke impassively, "So you wouldn't happen to his current status?"

"Apparently not or I would've already told you." Daphne was observing his every minute action. He was in a constant state of conflict with himself on how to react to her. After her explanation, when he looked at her she saw that familiar look that he used to give her back then at school. Though it was only for a fraction of second as he averted his eyes, but this was enough for her to conclude, 'He lives in denial.' This did rekindle the long lost flame in her, of hope, 'If you can play this game so can I, Mr. Potter.'

"Miss Greengrass…."

"Miss Greengrass…. Great now she's lost to us. Neville wake her up, lest we did be talking to a zombie. I really hate this type of clients…" Harry glared at her while Neville snapped his fingers in front of her eyes to zone her in present.

She snapped out, "What?"

"Listen miss, we can't afford to waste more time. So concentrate here." Harry castigated.

Daphne flushed not at the fact that 'He' told her off but the fact that she lost her mind over such silly thing when she should concentrate on her sister. She scowled, "What did you ask?" she wasn't the one to bow so easily even if it was her mistake (a nasty slytherin trait).

Neville spoke before Harry could, "That where are your other stuffs? Like that mirror and that bracelet."

"On my table." She said neutrally to Neville.

Neville got from the table he perched upon, "Fine I will get them."

"Don't Neville, that would prove to be a grievous mistake. Take Miss Greengrass with you to retrieve it. I'm sure that there must some tracking charm and touch identity sensory charm. Anyone besides designated people touches it an alarm triggers off thus creating havoc in its go." Daphne had not thought of this possibility, 'Daph you are really letting things to slack too much.' She cursed to herself but hurried along Neville to her cabin.

Time was 11:35 A.M

Harry was now alone in the cell, he hadn't even budged a muscle since they left. Things were taking an awkward turn for him lately almost at every point. This meeting, was it fate (which neither believed nor depended upon, mostly in the post-Voldemort period), was it accident (not at all a possibility. He was the only one whom she would trust things like upon) or was it planned (most likely, but why). He needed to remain wary of this storm (Daphne), for she had turned and churned and twisted his life last time, gave him some definition of life and totally changed some rock marked beliefs. What would this encounter bring upon him this time?

He remembered how Neville had turned up in their gang apparently one of the better aftermaths of the storm (called Daphne).

**Chapter Ends**

**A/N: Okay I finally came back to this story. I know a small update but I was really stuck on how to proceed. I think now I have some ideas. Okay next chapter an insight on how Neville joined the group, some fun facts and some serious Slytherism, some dark magic and maybe some more.**

**Now to all my readers if you all send a single review it would be the awesomest thing you did after adding my story to your respective Alert and Favourite lists. So thanks for still being with me and**

**KEEP READING AND REVIEWING…**

**Until Next Time…**

**Night…...**


	7. Chapter 7 Fourth Hour continued

**Chapter 7: Fourth Hour second half**

**A/N: If you find any spelling and grammatical errors please bear with me and inform me. **

**Thank you all those who have added my story to their Favorites and Alerts and obviously those who reviewed.**

**Answers:**

**riegret8****: Harry didn't end up in a cell, he was still in that room (which resembles a cell). **

**ShadowMagus316****: This is a free world no one forced you read my story. There is no need to go pissing around about not wanting to read a story. Honestly judging a book by its cover or maybe a portion as in this case. Again I would just say it's your choice read if you want to.**

**Well I already planned on changing that part but later when I get time.**

**ceo55****: Chapter! Chapter! Chapter! There's the next one. Good review! Hope more comes at your soonest!**

**Wonderbee31****: I know you have guessed something on the plot. Read on to see how far your guess goes right.**

**SimFlyer****: Thanks for your review.**

**You people got any ideas that I could use for changing that occlumency training scene in chapter 5. I have been badgered enough on this but really can't think on a way to do it and it's irritating.**

Chapter: Fourth Hour second half

Time was 11:35 A.M

He remembered how Neville had turned up in their gang apparently one of the better aftermaths of the storm (called Daphne).

**FLASHBACK**

Kitchen of the Burrow where your teen age's most thrilling task was to peel sprouts the muggle way. Harry and Ron found themselves stuck in a mountain of these sprouts.

"Quit it already mate. You are stretching it too far." Harry sighed for what was like hundredth time.

"What has put our Brother's…"

"…knickers in a twist" Gred and Feorge announced their entrance.

Ron scowled at them, but continued on his sprout a bit more fiercely. Twins shared a look and turned to Harry, "Anyways, congrats Harry…"

"…yeah heard you bagged the awesomest..."

"hottest…"

"sexiest…"

"girl at the school…

"The Ice Princess… drum rolls …"

"Daphne Greengrass" they concluded in perfect tuned unison.

A snort came from Ron's side, "That's all we need more snake lovers. I bet it was you who sold her that love potion she has been using on Harry. But of course how would you know. That snake must have disguised herself to bewitch you in selling her a stock hold."

Harry sighed and gave the twins a look clearly saying, 'I'm fed up.' The twins shared another look and left Ron to his grumblings, sometimes it was difficult to get him out of his sulk mode. But nothing time can't manage.

"You know my handsome twin I remember the time we saw Malfoy trying to ask her to Yule Ball…"

"…correction, my clever twin, he was more like forcing her…" they both shuddered, "anyway do you remember how subtly…"

"…our favourite Ice Princess refused him, yup I remember. Never be on her wrong side." They grinned evilly.

"So this proves that our benefactor…"

"…must have some special qualities to…"

"…melt her ice and get…"

"…her to come with him on a date." They both looked at Harry with most sincere look and bowed deep, "Oh grand master, please take us under you and teach us some tips."

Harry laughed at their antics, "To a pair of womanizers like you, me a master. I would at most pass for an average student."

"Too modest. Another quality of an achiever." Fred intoned saintly.

"Really guys it was nothing. Rather it was because of you in a way."

The twins looked curious, "And pray tell how we did, what we did?"

"You should really look into whom you sell your products….

An "I told you" suspiciously came from Ron's side. But Harry ignored…

"… loads of girls spiked my food and drinks just so that they could come with me to the party. And to rid of that I asked Daphne Greengrass if she could come with me 'as a friend' – mind you, nothing more. I just wanted to get rid of the crowd and she was bored for the day."

"I agree with you dear brother, too modest." George nodded supportively.

"I can't stay here if all you buffoons are gonna talk is Snake this Snake that." Ron stomped out of the kitchen towards his room.

Fred and George didn't react having endured it numerous times, but Harry honestly felt hurt. If he had to chose between Daphne and Ron, one was six months of somewhat deep friendship while other was five and a half years of on and off friendship. He truly didn't know what to do. True he hadn't talked much to Ron after Daphne came, but it did have some very fruitful results which he doubted he could gain even from Hermione's friendship. The day passed pretty quickly for twins decided they had to celebrate a separate Christmas party only with business partners, which meant George Fred and Harry. So they 'helped' Harry in peeling rest of the pile and taking him on a trip down the village saying they had seen a pretty blonde who loved magic (muggle of course).

Rest of the holidays passed with continual rather more infuriating nagging from Ron about Harry seeing the matter in light of obnoxious preconception and superstition. It didn't always end without any furious spat, and everybody was worried for the two boys and their friendship. Ginny surprisingly took Ron's side, which dealt another blow to Harry for another friendship was on the brink to be lost. Harry wasn't too happy but he couldn't force them to change their view. They chose for themselves what they wanted to do or belive.

In no time were back on the Hogwarts express on their way to next term of the sixth year. Harry was sharing the compartment with regular of Luna, Neville with new additions being Daphne, Tracey and Astoria with Ron and Hermione on their prefect rounds. Daphne had joined because of the reason now that it was public that she and Harry were friends. Tracey was Daphne's and in turn Harry's friend. Astoria was there only because not moments after the train left the station she had found herself cornered by Theodor Nott of Daphne's year –

_Astoria was walking along the corridor to find her friends. This was the second last compartment of the train where she had agreed with her friends to meet. Door after door crossed with her glancing through the doors for her friend. Then suddenly without any warning the door next to the one she was looking through opened only to reveal the face of someone whom she had no intention of even accepting the existence of. She came to a stock still with a glare projected on the obnoxious male called Theodor Nott. Apparently someone had filled his trash of a brain with an abominable idea that she was promised to him under the law of Dark Lord. He had taken upon himself since last year to 'court' her for the benefit of their 'future'. Numerous numbers of times she had made sure that it gets through his bone brain that she did rather marry a troll than even think for his friendship. But it seems no one had taught him where was the limit of anything. But today was different, since it was more … sinister,_

"_Hey beautiful missed me?" he went to touch her soft cheeks but Astoria batted it off without any thought._

"_Move away. I'm really not in the mood to let you destroy my day anymore." Astoria tried to push him off but he caught her hand effortlessly and made to kiss it in mockery of politeness. Astoria glared perniciously at him but he didn't appear to notice it, "Leave my hand now." She commanded threateningly._

"_Nah I haven't caught it just leave it. Beside s can't I touch my girlfriend wherever I please" Today was the day he would test his 'future wife' performance in a bed. He had even custom made a bracelet from Borgin and Burke's that he would 'gift' her as her prize for 'accepting so gratefully' of his proposal of becoming a couple. The bracelet would make sure she would remain loyal to him always and follow his command no matter what._

_Astoria appalled listening to horrific plans the psychotic criminal stalker was scheming. She had thought that she had seen worst but no how daft could she be not to expect anything less than this from the member of a Loyal Death Eater family. But this was not time to go blank she had to do something to save herself from this beast before he moves. She successfully jerked her hand free from his. Subtly she rubbed her family bracelet to alert Daphne of her situation and with other hand went for wand._

_Theodor caught her move for her wand and instantly took hold of her roughly pinning her to the door of the empty section, "No tricks will work. I'm the one who commands our relationship so you better accept your fate. You are mine and only mine. And today I will damn enjoy marking you. Come love at least give me sensuous kiss." He roughly forced himself on her while she tried to her best to fight him off._

_In the last compartment's middle section, Harry and his gang were discussing their vacations in general. Daphne suddenly grew tensed. Her face contorted into rage so intense that she would murder first person to annoy her. She got a distant look for a few moments and then reeled back to reality. She took hold of Harry and dragged him while significantly glancing at Tracey who got the meaning. Tracey kept everyone calm and stopped them from following the pair._

_Daphne quickly crossed the corridor with Harry in tow. Harry knew that Astoria was in danger for she had explained him earlier about the charmed family bracelet they wore. He was about as furious about this matter as Daphne but someone had to keep calm from making the matter going out of hands. But definitely didn't mean he forgive the culprit nope that type of ideas had no space in mind._

_He would exact his metal but with pain true pain. They came to an abrupt halt in front of a curtained section of the second last compartment. It was particularly silent. Daphne whipped out her wand and forced the door open. There in front of them was the most dreadful scenario that they had seen. Astoria with bruises on her cheeks and puffy red eyes was sobbing and lying on the floor. Her clothes were torn in places with her upper undergarment peeking out. Her hands were shackled to the seats with binds cutting through her wrists while she struggled against it. Nott was straddling her with his hands on her abdomen as he slowly unzipped her top. His back was to them so they couldn't see the malicious predatory grin splitting his face. Apparently he hadn't yet realised their presence but Astoria looked considerately blessed with Daphne and him coming to her rescue._

_Harry caught Daphne's arm before she would make a rash decision. He quickly stupefied the maniac and rushed forward to help Astoria out of her bonds. Daphne glared at the sinner wanting to blast his bits out of existence, she inflicted a small cursed slit just behind both his ears that would make him bleed unstoppably whenever would try to harm her or her sister. Not wanting to stay any longer for 'accidently mutilate' him further she helped her sister out with a last glare at the offender and a nod to Harry. She knew he loved Astoria as a sister he never had, so he would take care of the matter but with a more a level head._

_Harry calmly checked Nott for any mark on his wrist and he was met with a sight of the disgusting Dark Mark. He let of the hand carelessly banished the 'thing' on one of the seats while settling on the other. He made sure charm his appearance to appear shady and undistinguished and also changed his voice also to appear indistinguishable from male or female. The room was once again secured more effectively._

_He casually and wandlessly tossed a few bludgeoning hex towards Nott to wake him up while cracking a few ribs and both his legs. Nott groaned back to consciousness, "Fuck, what happened?" he tried to stand up but his legs won't support him and he felt unaccounted pain in chest as if someone had practiced targets with him. He groused a few curses and groped around for his wand for his eyes were too fuzzy for him to make out anything of what he saw._

"_Theodor Nott" Harry said coolly gaining his attention._

"_Who are you? And why did you attack me?" Nott immediately snapped at him._

"_I'm… nobody. Why did I attack you? Hah I haven't attacked you… yet, so feel lucky" Harry said smoothly with venom seeping through each word, "First congrats on making it to Shit Eaters group. You made my choices easier."_

_Nott couldn't string the meaning, "What choices?"_

"_Of your fate. I'm your almighty remember that. So next time when you consider to even look like that at a girl with those fucking balls in your head I will execute your justice with my own hands. Here's my parting gift for you, have fun." Harry pointed his wand right on his groins and intoned the rare dark spell known as Aphrodite's curse, in which the person would have go through a version of cruciatis curse while in the process of ejaculating their love juices. This spell was the nightmare of those twisted minds, a few centuries back when it would be inflicted upon anyone proved to have inflicted any sort of nefarious harm to a either man or woman though most of the time it was women who were hunted by men. It was later banned for its effects._

_Harry with a final kick in Nott's abdomen exited the room and quickly casted spell echo erasing charm on his wand. He adjusted his expressions and rejoined his group._

Astoria had long since dozed in her sister's lap and rest of the people simply avoided any sort of discussion regarding the matter.

The door slid open allowing the sixth year Gryffindor prefects entry, bickering their usual way. Their bickering instantly stalled noticing the eerie silence. Their gaze swept through the compartment with Ron stopping at three Slytherins huddled together. His eye narrowed, "Why are these snakes here?"

Harry was not feeling good with already confronting Nott and Ron was helping it any further. He tried to ignore.

"Ron, please not now." Hermione hadn't known the full story of their Christmas altercations. But Harry had mentioned the situation a number of times in his letters.

But Ron didn't heed, "Oh I see, snakes are better company some old helpful friends. Fine go on then even I don't care. I know those slags have dozed you love potions and maybe to even spread their legs to keep you on the leash."

"Ron, for the sake of our friendship please leave." Harry said in a deathly calm.

Ron glared for the final time at the Slytherin girls two of which glared back with more intensity. He sneered at them and exited with long strides. Harry was quivering with anger, it was already bad with Astoria getting assaulted but Ron had to come and just worsen it.

Hermione could look at the turmoil in his eyes and reached for his hand to calm him. "Harry forget what Ron said. He will come around just don't burden yourself with his opinions."

"Harry she's right whatever he said, don't bother about it." Daphne held his other hand.

Harry looked sadly at the door. He took some heavy breathes to calm himself, "I need some fresh air." He got up and left the compartment. Neville didn't feel right for Harry to leave alone, so followed him out.

Harry couldn't see such a deep friendship fall out so easily just because one of his only two best friends was being prejudiced and biased to a new friend of his. He couldn't understand how son of Molly and Arthur could be so biased. He hadn't looked where he was heading to. Some murmurs came from a nearby door when he heard his name his name. He stopped to listen, apparently it was Ron who was inside, "I know Ginny you don't want it. But it's for Harry. I will somehow slip this love potion in one of those snakes' potions and Harry will see and believe that those bitches actually worship the floor ferret walks on. And when he is heartbroken only you will be there to comfort him, he will see his mistake and fall for you. Listen I know him and he is definitely being controlled by those slags. I know they are preparing to serve Harry to you-know-who on a silver platter."

"I don't know Ron, it can dangerous. Besides if something goes wrong and Harry finds about our involvement he would never forgive us. I can't live that." Ginny said worriedly, doubting every bit of the plan.

"Nothing can wrong. I will convince Hermione to help us. She will see that Harry is in danger and will help us." Ron said with determination while Ginny could only nod reluctantly.

Harry couldn't believe whatever he heard. His best friend the first ever friend of his age he made in his life, he was plotting against his other friends one of whom meant more than a friend for him. How could Ron be so blind to the world around him? Why couldn't once listen to him and trust his judgment? Harry's heart completely broke. He felt a hand on his shoulder; he turned around to see the uncharacteristically calm and composed face of Neville. Neville steered Harry away from there. Towards their compartment.

"Harry, don't worry about Ron. He won't be able to do anything to Daphne or her sister or Tracey for that matter. I will help you protect her.

I have seen them act around you, and until now they haven't given any indications that they mean you harm. Besides I know Daphne's parents though not exactly Dumbledore supporter but they sure weren't the type let some Dark plotting old coot with stupid name control them. They never had joined the Death Eaters, for they never believed in this blood supremacy. I don't know much about these girls but at least they are the ones who never take part in any of Malfoy's stupidity. Though act indifferently to me but I guess at least that's better than getting bullied." Neville said with shrug.

Harry looked deeply into the honest words Neville had said. He unlike Ron wasn't being biased though he was the one who got tormented by the Slytherins on regular basis. Neville had more reasons to behave like Ron but instead he was being reasonable and logical. Harry truly regretted never giving Neville giving a hand of friendship. He was the most loyal Gryffindor in true sense.

Bravery doesn't mean to face any kind of danger. It meant to think right and act on it. Not always brain is right but similarly not always heart is wrong. Neville had his heart in right place, and for the fact of other little problems of his well he now had Harry's complete support with three smartest witches to teach him. Neville was not a weak man but thoroughly unconfident of his abilities, though that wouldn't be the matter anymore. "Thanks Neville. I guess I have had too much for one day shall we go back?"

They went back having momentarily forgotten about Ron and his schemes.

**FLASHBACK ENDS**

The door to the cell opened to enter Neville and Daphne back. Daphne had her purse with her. He looked at his watch and they were already fifteen minutes as time was 11:50 A.M. Daphne all the items of concern on the table before Harry. The mirror, the envelops and her sister's bracelet. With a look of cold indifference she continued staring at Harry.

Harry ignored the rest and concentrated only on the mirror. It was a plane square and he already knew it to be two way. He waved his hand above it and felt for anything dark and uncomfortable. But he hadn't needed to search too much apparently the entire mirror reeked of blood magic been used.

"Definitely blood magic, nothing I can do about it." Harry concluded.

"What do you mean?" Daphne asked sharply.

"I mean since you have to always carry this with you wherever we go so that you can talk to Malfoy, obviously me being with you will alert him of me. And that is not a chance I'm going to take. So we need a better hand in this matter. So we will have to involve some more people or if you have better suggestions." Harry tossed the ball back in her court.

"If anything happens to my sister…" Daphne started to threaten but was harshly cut off.

"Do you think that I will allow anything to happen to Astoria on my watch?" Harry demanded darkly glaring at her.

Daphne backed down, he wasn't this angry usually. She felt guilty for doubting him, he truly won't let anything happen her. Daphne spoke slowly, "Who are you calling in?"

Harry settled down, "For now it's just Hermione. For she will have a way around this mirror problem." Daphne approved Hermione for she had learned quite early that Hermione could be depended with both her sister's and her life. So she agreed with Harry. He looked at Neville.

Neville conceded, "I will go for her but you both better behave. I don't want to return with you already at your necks trying to murder each other." With a skeptical glance he again went out.

They both sat in perfect silence ignoring the feeling of awkwardness of being in the same room as other without having a go at other's neck. Daphne glanced at Harry while sat silently with closed eyes. She didn't know why but she longed to see in those emerald green eyes like before. She looked at how more mature he looked after all these years. He had gained a small scar on his left jaw line which knew nothing of. She continued stare, for now he was no more the cute teenager she had seen earlier but a hardened man through his experience.

"How are you Daphne?" Harry asked in a small voice, completely startling her after a silence of five minutes.

"Saying fine would be completely a lie. What about you?" she asked in the same tone.

"So so, I guess." He fell silent again. Daphne didn't know what to make of his answer, but in the back of her mind there was another question 'Did he miss me?' Daphne shook her head to suppress that stupid feeling she got lately whenever this raven haired bloke crossed her head.

Harry was battling his own version of fight against the urge to go and hug Daphne and feel her warmth in his arms. Here her soothing heartbeat synchronise with his. He had kept his eyes close so that he won't do something his brain strictly forbid against. He had to break the awkward silence when felt her uneasiness as she shuffled her foot under the table.

"If you want I can wait outside." He suggested calmly.

"NO" she answered quickly and then stammered, "I mean no, you are not troubling me."

Harry shrugged but still ignored the nagging in the back of his mind to look at her.

They waited for Neville and Hermione to come as fast as they could.

Time was exact 12 P.M

**CHAPTER ENDS…..**

**More when I get more ideas.**

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**Until next time….**


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